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Social landlord applications still to be added to oversubscribed cladding safety fund
Applications for funding to cover the costs of "tens of thousands" of trapped leaseholders in social housing blocks with dangerous cladding are yet to be added to the vastly oversubscribed Building Safety Fund, the government has confirmed.
Last week, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) revealed that nearly 2,784 buildings had already registered for the fund to remove non-aluminium composite material cladding far outstripping the maximum of 600 the £1bn fund will cover.
But a source at MHCLG confirmed that this figure exclusively relates to applications from private building owners and a small number of social landlords who believe paying for the works could threaten their financial viability.
Many more registrations from social landlords to cover costs they would otherwise have billed to leaseholders have yet to be added.
Applications for social housing providers to bid through this route opened at the end of July and will close in December this year.
The government is understood to still be waiting for some of these applications to be submitted, and that they will amount to tens of thousands of leaseholders in London alone.
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The latest revelations highlight the sheer number of buildings that will need government cash to pay for cladding remediation or see leaseholder billed, with thousands set to miss out unless the funding is increased.
It comes just weeks after Inside Housing relaunched its End Our Cladding Scandal campaign alongside cladding campaigners and the Grenfell families.
One of the key asks of the campaign is that the government takes a proactive stance in leading a national effort to fix the crisis of dangerous cladding and forward fund all necessary remediation work, reclaiming the cost from those responsible or via a new levy on development.
The £1bn Building Safety fund was announced in March as part of chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget. Under the rules, only buildings above 18m can apply and building owners must prove that the cladding materials are dangerous. Money will be distributed on a first come, first served basis at application stage.
Last week it was revealed that 2,784 had registered, with only 447 of those blocks submitting correct information and only 65 of these blocks being deemed eligible so far.
This number reflects only the private blocks that have applied for and some housing associations that have registered through the private fund on the basis that the remediation was unaffordable or a threat to their financial viability. It is understood that a relatively small number of associations have registered on these grounds.
However, the second stream is exclusively for housing associations and councils.
This would include applications for blocks that exclusively houses leaseholders and shared owners but also those blocks that have a mixture of tenures.
For example, if a block that needs remediation includes 20 leaseholders and 20 renters, a landlord will be able to apply to cover the costs it would otherwise have billed to those leaseholders.
Inside Housing has spoken to dozens of shared owners currently trapped in blocks unable to sell - many of whom have been warned by their housing association that crippling bills will be pushed onto them if they are not successful in obtaining government funding.
MHCLG has said the Building Safety Fund is part of a push to make homes safer and quicker, and it was already working to progress eligible applicants to the Building Safety Fund to the next stage.
Specialists have been appointed to support building owners through the application process.
10 steps to End Our Cladding Scandal
Based on the recommendations of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee and backed by a range of sector bodies and MPs from across the political spectrum, these are Inside Housing’s 10 steps to End Our Cladding Scandal:
- The government must lead an urgent national effort to remove all dangerous cladding from buildings by June 2022.
- The Building Safety Fund must cover all buildings, regardless of height, and a range of internal and external fire safety defects, not just cladding.
- The government should provide the money up front and then seek to recover it from any responsible parties or via a temporary levy on development.
- Social housing providers must have full and equal access to the fund.
- The government must compel building owners or managers to be honest with residents about fire safety defects.
- The government should cover the cost of interim safety measures.
- The government should act as an insurer of last resort and underwrite insurance where premiums have soared.
- A fairer, faster process is needed to replace the EWS form and funding is necessary to ensure all buildings requiring a form are surveyed within 12 months.
- Mental health support must be offered to affected residents.
- Protecting residents from historic and future costs must be a key commitment of new building safety legislation.
End Our Cladding Scandal: campaign backers
Organisations:
- Grenfell United
- Resident cladding action groups: UK Cladding Action Group, Manchester Cladiators, Leeds Cladding Scandal, Birmingham Leaseholder Action Group, London Cladding Action Group, Liverpool Cladiators, One Housing Action Group, Homeowners of L&Q, Richmond House Residents and others
- A collective of lawyers representing Grenfell Tower families at the public inquiry
- The Sunday Times
- Shelter
- Fire Brigades Union
- Royal Institute of British Architects
- Chartered Institute of Housing
- National Housing Federation
- Unison
- National Leasehold Campaign
- Leasehold Knowledge Partnership
- Engage Liverpool
- Federation of Private Residents Associations
- Institute of Residential Property Management
Individuals and experts:
- TV presenter Kevin McCloud
- TV presenter Phil Spencer
- Architect George Clarke
- Actor and comedian Kathy Burke
- Actor Carey Mulligan
- Singer/songwriter Marcus Mumford
- Hip hop artist and campaigner Lowkey
- West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster
- Actor Ross Mullan (Game of Thrones)
- Leilani Farha, dormer UN special rapporteur for housing
- Jonathan Evans, chief executive of Ash & Lacy
- Building Safety Register co-founder Matt Hodges-Long
- Professor Sue Bright
- Executive coach Gill Kernick
- Safety consultant Stephen MacKenzie
- Safety consultant Phil Murphy
- Architect Francis Maria Peacock
- Chris Blythe OBE, former chief executive of the CIOB
- Solicitor Giles Peaker
Politicians:
- Andy Street, metro mayor of West Midlands (Conservative)
- Sadiq Khan, mayor of London (Labour)
- Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester (Labour)
- Steve Rotheram, metro mayor of Liverpool City Region (Labour)
- Mike Amesbury MP, shadow housing minister (Labour)
- Matthew Pennycook MP (Labour)
- Kim Johnson MP (Labour)
- Shabana Mahmood MP (Labour)
- Liam Byrne MP (Labour)
- Ian Byrne MP (Labour)
- Abena Oppong-Asare MP (Labour)
- Margaret Hodge MP (Labour)
- Ruth Cadbury MP (Labour)
- Apsana Begum MP (Labour)
- Rushanara Ali MP (Labour)
- Sam Tarry MP (Labour)
- Mohammed Yasin MP (Labour)
- Lucy Powell MP (Labour)
- Rebecca Long-Bailey MP (Labour)
- Justin Madders MP (Labour)
- Florence Eshalomi MP (Labour)
- Sam Terry MP (Labour)
- Jeff Smith MP (Labour)
- Mohammed Yasin MP (Labour)
- Meg Hillier MP (Labour)
- Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (Labour)
- Feryal Clark MP (Labour)
- John Cruddas MP (Labour)
- Virendra Sharma MP (Labour)
- Graham Stringer MP (Labour)
- Diane Abbott MP (Labour)
- Andrew Mitchell MP (Conservative)
- Sir Peter Bottomley MP (Conservative)
- Bob Neil MP (Conservative)
- Bob Blackman MP (Conservative)
- Anne Marie Morris MP (Conservative)
- Stephen McPartland MP (Conservative)
- Matthew Offord MP (Conservative)
- Kevin Hollinrake MP (Conservative)
- Stephen Hammond MP (Conservative)
- Daisy Cooper MP (Liberal Democrat)
- Christine Jardine MP (Liberal Democrat)
- Sarah Olney MP (Liberal Democrat)
- Jamie Stone MP (Liberal Democrat)
- Caroline Lucas MP (Green)
Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative)
- Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative)
- Lord Gary Porter of Spalding (Conservative, former chair of the Local Government Association)
- Lord Shipley OBE (Liberal Democrat)
- Lord Stunnell OBE (Liberal Democrat)
- Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green)
- Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench)
- Cllr Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester Council (Labour)
- Cllr Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham Council (Labour)
- Philip Glanville, mayor of Hackney (Labour)
- Paul Dennett, mayor of Salford (Labour)
- Sian Berry AM (Green)
- Caroline Pidgeon AM (Liberal Democrat)
- Tom Copley AM, deputy mayor for housing (Labour)
- Leonie Cooper AM (Labour)
- Murad Qureshi AM (Labour)
- Andrew Dismore AM (Labour)
- Neil McEvoy MS (Labour)
- Cllr Jonathan Bartley (Green, co-leader)
- Cllr Douglas Johnson (Green)
- Cllr Suzanne Richards (Labour)
- Cllr Liz Clements (Labour)
- Cllr Maria Toolan (Labour)
- Cllr Christine Banks (Labour)
- Cllr Nick Small (Labour)
- Cllr Geoff Barraclough (Labour)
- Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg (Labour)
- Cllr Martin Whelton (Labour)
- Cllr Jon Connor-Lyons (Labour)
- Cllr Sam Wheeler (Labour)
- Cllr Marcus Johns (Labour)
- Cllr Adam Hug (Labour)
- Cllr Tony Belton (Labour)
- Cllr Zena Brabazon (Labour)
- Cllr Sara Conway (Labour)
- Cllr Mary Daly (Labour)
- Cllr Thomas Stephens (Labour)
- Cllr Krupesh Hirani (Labour)
- Cllr Sarah Bogle (Labour)
- Cllr Darren Paffey (Labour)
- Cllr Joan Davies (Labour)
- Cllr Sem Moema (Labour)
- Cllr Shama Tatler (Labour)
- Cllr Johnson Situ (Labour)
- Cllr Anne Clarke (Labour)
- Cllr Leo Pollak (Labour)
- Cllr James Roberts (Vice Chair of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority) (Labour)
- Cllr Annette Wright (Labour)
- Cllr Ken Wood (Conservative)
- Cllr Meirion Jenkins (Conservative)
- Cllr Robert Alden (Conservative)
- Cllr Peter Golds (Conservative)
- Cllr Michael Rutherford (Conservative)
- Cllr Edward Gretton (Conservative)
- Cllr Anton Georgiou (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Jayne McCoy (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Rabina Khan (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Ruth Dombey (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Anthony Fairclough (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Hina Bokhari (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Jenny Batt (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Ben Andrew (Liberal Democrat)
- Cllr Andrew Wood (independent, former Conservative)
