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Lords pass another amendment to Fire Safety Bill to protect leaseholders from costs
The government has again been defeated in the House of Lords over the Fire Safety Bill as peers passed a new amendment that would see leaseholders protected from bearing the costs of any remediation work.
Peers voted by a majority of 86 to reinsert the amendment to the bill, which will prevent building owners from passing on any costs of fire safety works to residents.
It marks a third attempt by the Lords to introduce such a provision after two previous amendments were voted down in the House of Commons, most recently in March this year.
Speaking in the Lords yesterday, building safety minister Lord Greenhalgh called the amendment “inappropriate and unworkable”.
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He said: “Given the repeated agreement, across both houses, that we need to act, I think we would all also agree that this bill should go on to the statue book in the next few days.
“The Commons has already voted against two different remediation amendments put forward by your Lordships’ House, and by substantial majorities of 115 and 69.
“Prior to that, the issue of remediation costs was discussed at both commons committee and report stages, so the commons has considered the issue of who pays at four different stages and voted on it twice – each time supporting the government’s view that provision of this kind is unnecessary.
“This house has done what is right and proper as a revising chamber, namely, to ask the Commons to think again – not once, but twice.
“It is time for your Lordships’ House to respect the will of the elected chamber. To continue to deny the wishes of the democratically elected chamber, particularly where the result is an increase in fire safety risks, could ultimately cost lives.”
Earlier this year the government committed a further £3.5bn of government grant to pay for the removal and replacement of dangerous cladding on buildings over 18 metres tall.
It also introduced a new loan scheme for those living in buildings below 18 metres with repayments capped at £50 per month.
However the Bishop of St Albans, the Right Reverend Dr Alan Smith, who brought forward the amendment, told the Lords yesterday that “the promised grant and loan schemes are not even operational” and that “there are no dates and no assurance has been given on, for example, whether it will be possible to apply retrospectively”.
He said that once the Fire Safety Bill passes, “those who would ordinarily be excluded from paying for replacement cladding under the government scheme could, within months, be handed very large bills”.
“The result, I fear, will be bankruptcies, enormous mental health strains, and possibly worse,” he added.
The bill will now return to the House of Commons where MPs will once again vote on the amendment.
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