You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Jenrick: Treasury blocked attempts for bigger cladding fund
Former housing secretary Robert Jenrick has said that the Treasury blocked attempts to gain more funds to help leaseholders who face huge bills to fix dangerous cladding.
The minister, who was replaced by Michael Gove in a reshuffle last month, said he “fought the battle” for a higher sum than the £5bn Building Safety Fund while acting as communities secretary.
Speaking on the BBC’s Politics Live, Mr Jenrick said: “I am able to speak a bit more freely than I could a few months ago.
“What is the balance between the state paying and then trying to recoup as much of that as possible from the developers through taxes and the leaseholders?
READ MORE
“At the moment the balance is £5bn by the state, the remainder we don’t know exactly how much but clearly multiple billions of pounds by the leaseholder. The leaseholders find that extremely unfair.
“The only way to fix that would be for the taxpayer to step in and massively increase that £5bn fund.
“At the moment, and I have fought this battle for a number of years, the Treasury and the government aren’t willing to do that.”
“I fought this battle for a couple of years,” says former housing secretary Robert Jenrick on who pays to change cladding. “The Treasury... is simply not willing to do that”
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics)
Thousands of flat owners are facing large bills to change cladding t.co/nEpLYkOX9M #PoliticsLive pic.twitter.com/75lbQJ6Xbl"I fought this battle for a couple of years," says former housing secretary Robert Jenrick on who pays to change cladding, "the Treasury... is simply not willing to do that"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 28, 2021
Thousands of flat owners are facing large bills to change claddinghttps://t.co/nEpLYkOX9M #PoliticsLive pic.twitter.com/75lbQJ6Xbl
Mr Jenrick’s comments come a day after Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, announced a levy of 4% on profits above £25m for private developers, to help pay for the long-term cost of the cladding work.
It is anticipated that the new levy could generate up to £2bn to help pay for the costs of fixing unsafe cladding.
Private housebuilders, such as Persimmon, could pay up to £40m a year into the new levy, with the combined tax contribution from the top 11 housebuilders standing at an estimated £200m.
Thousands of leaseholders have found themselves facing huge bills, sometimes over £100,000 per property, to fix cladding which has been deemed unsafe.
The Building Safety Fund, which was launched earlier this year, has provided some funding to help fix cladding issues on a number of high-rise blocks, however it is deemed to be insufficient to fix the entire problem. It currently only specifically covers the cost of removing ACM and non-ACM cladding and does not contribute to the costs of other fire safety defects, such as timber balconies or missing fire breaks and cavities.
Earlier this month, leaseholders in Salford found themselves facing bills of up to £30,000 each after the government withdrew an offer to fund full remediation of a block citing an “error”.
The Treasury has been contacted for comment.
Sign up for our fire safety newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
