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Councils stretch housing budgets as government continues to refuse to fund fire safety work
The government has still given no financial help to local councils to carry out essential fire safety work, forcing councils to stretch already limited housing budgets to cover the cost.
In a survey of 31 local councils whose tower blocks failed fire safety checks since the Grenfell Tower disaster, none said they had received financial assistance from central government to carry out work.
That is despite top officials telling a committee of MPs that four councils would receive help “in the next few weeks” on 15 January, almost three months ago.
In answer to a written question by Labour MP John Healey on 8 March, housing minister Dominic Raab said that councils would need to fund the costs of fire safety work in their own buildings, but “there may be circumstances where government would consider the removal of financial restrictions to enable works to go ahead”.
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He said 41 local authorities had contacted the government about the work, while 13 had identified buildings that needed essential works.
Four had provided the further necessary information for officials to start working with them on their requests.
Local councils including Hounslow, Brent and Leicester told Inside Housing that they had paid for the work using existing housing budgets, or that they were planning to, if neither funding nor added borrowing capacity was granted.
Sheffield Council said it would have to build fewer houses if the government did not allow it to borrow additional money.
Janet Sharpe, director of housing and neighbourhood services at Sheffield Council, said: “The council would need to slow down its council housing building programme to divert funds to fire safety if additional headroom or grant is not made available from government.” Councils reported bills of up to £35m to pay for works, and Salford council agreed in August to take out a private loan of £25m to cover the costs.
Hounslow Council said: “We have completed the prescribed fire safety work by paying for it from our Housing Revenue Account reserves; but this is not without consequence and we will seek to reimburse our costs from available sources, as appropriate.”
A spokesperson for Westminster City Council, which has allocated £35m for works, said: “Like other council’s Westminster is involved in ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government [MHCLG] regarding potential future funding requirements for a range of fire safety measures.”
Brent Council said it has written several letters to the MHCLG “requesting the government fund the additional fire safety works; change the policy on 1% decrease in rents up to 2020, or increase the HRA borrowing cap as alternative ways to fund these additional works”.
“The current position from central government is that as Brent’s blocks fully comply with existing safety standards, it will not provide the assistance Brent has requested,” a spokesperson added.
Other councils including Croydon, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Hackney all said they had received no funding for fire safety work.
MHCLG has been approached for comment.
The Paper Trail: The Failure of Building Regulations
Read our in-depth investigation into how building regulations have changed over time and how this may have contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire:
Never Again campaign
Inside Housing has launched a campaign to improve fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire
Never Again: campaign asks
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
LANDLORDS
- Take immediate action to check cladding and external panels on tower blocks and take prompt, appropriate action to remedy any problems
- Update risk assessments using an appropriate, qualified expert.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
GOVERNMENT
- Provide urgent advice on the installation and upkeep of external insulation
- Update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.
