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Housing association warns cladding costs will impact capital projects
A South West housing association has warned it cannot meet the cost of removing dangerous cladding from its tower blocks without serious knock-on effects to its new build and refurbishment programmes.
Plymouth Community Homes, which manages around 16,000 homes following a stock transfer from the city council, has three high rises covered in Grenfell-style aluminium composite material cladding at the Mount Wise Towers Estate.
It insists the system was compliant with building regulations when installed during a refurbishment in 2000.
Work is yet to start on removing the materials almost 11 months on from the Grenfell Tower fire last June, in which combustible cladding is thought to have contributed to the spread of flames.
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The association requested funding help from government to meet the £14m estimated cost of the remedial work, but was told cash would only be made available in cases where financial restrictions would stop work from going ahead.
As it would be able to meet the costs without becoming unviable, Plymouth Community Homes faces deferring the money from planned capital works for existing stock and new build.
That would mean cutting 220 homes from its development programme or cancelling extensive refurbishment and modernisation work to 14 other blocks.
John Clark, chief executive of Plymouth Community Homes, told Inside Housing: “The big question is: is it actually right to charge social housing tenants for something that is a failure of the national building regulations?
“As a housing association the only money we have comes from our tenants.
“It is unfair to say it’s not right for leaseholders in private blocks to have to pay for this work, but that you would charge someone in social housing, who are some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society.”
Ministers have previously said leaseholders in private blocks with dangerous cladding should not be made to foot the bill for its removal.
Mr Clark added that he had suggested alternative ways the government could provide financial help – such as making the works VAT exempt or cancelling the final year of the 1% rent reduction – without success.
Experts have said cladding on the Mount Wise Towers would have to be immediately replaced after removal in order to maintain the 16-storey buildings’ water tightness.
Removal work is currently planned to start in October. In the meantime, additional fire safety measures such as waking watches, 60-minute fire doors, heat sensors and sprinklers are being put in place.
The ‘stay put’ fire advice at the towers has been changed to tell residents to evacuate if they hear a fire alarm.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Nothing is more important than keeping people safe.
“Building owners are responsible for ensuring their buildings are safe for residents and we expect them to fund fire safety measures.”
Update: at 10.46am, 26/04/18 A statement from MHCLG was added to the story.
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:
