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L&Q pledges to cover remediation costs for all blocks built by its construction arm
L&Q has pledged to cover the remediation costs for all blocks built by its in-house construction arm regardless of height, with 11 blocks identified so far as needing work.
The pledge comes as L&Q announced it has completed building safety inspections of 350 of the blocks it owns, including all of its 192 high rises. At least 127 blocks of these blocks – 82 are taller than 18 metres and 45 are below – will require some level of remediation.
L&Q owns 99 blocks that were built by its construction arm Quadrant Construction. Of the 52 of these that have been inspected so far, 34 have been confirmed as not needing remediation work, 11 have been confirmed as needing work, and L&Q is waiting for reports on the remaining seven.
L&Q said that more than 1,100 leaseholders living in buildings built by Quadrant Construction will not face any remediation costs as a result of its pledge.
However, the 105,000-home landlord said as it stands leaseholders living in L&Q homes that were not built by Quadrant Construction will face remediation costs, if all other avenues of recovery have been exhausted.
L&Q said it is taking “all available steps to reclaim these costs from developers, insurers and from government funding schemes where available”.
Of the 350 blocks inspected as part of L&Q’s building safety programme, 49 have an External Wall System 1 form with a rating of B1 or better, meaning no remediation work is required.
Remediation work is underway on 28 of the blocks found to need it.
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Fiona Fletcher-Smith, chief executive L&Q, said: “Many of our residents have told us that the building safety crisis has had a devastating impact on them, and we know that it has affected the mental health of thousands across the country.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done to get so many buildings inspected, especially given the pandemic and national shortage of qualified inspectors, but we have much more to do for our residents.
“My priority is that every resident feels safe in their home, but we know that even working as fast as we can, our programme will take years to deliver.
“We firmly believe that it is not right that leaseholders should pay for any failings of developers or unfit building regulations.
“Where L&Q was the developer, we fully accept our responsibility to remediate at our own expense.
“However, as a charity providing homes for people on the lowest incomes, we should also not have to pay for remedial works on blocks that we didn’t build.”
She added that L&Q hopes further measures and funding to support leaseholders and housing associations will be announced by government soon.
She said: “Government now have a real opportunity to end this crisis for the thousands of residents who are living with this every day.
“We welcome the recent comments by Michael Gove that the consolidated advice note will be withdrawn and agree with the suggestion that this could be replaced with more proportionate guidance and an approach where safety is achieved through mitigation measures as opposed to slow and costly remediation works.
“We are now encouraging government to accelerate these changes and introduce the funding and guidance needed to help keep residents safe and release thousands of mortgage prisoners.”
In total, L&Q is inspecting 1,797 buildings. It has set aside £250m over the next five years to cover fire safety costs, but expects that total costs could be in excess of £450m.
On Friday Inside Housing revealed that the government is considering allocating an additional £1bn to its Building Safety Fund, which is currently worth £5bn.
It has been estimated that the total bill for fixing the building safety crisis could be in excess of £15bn.
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