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The Housing Podcast: The crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of flats which could grind the housing market to a halt

The Housing Podcast is a production of Inside Housing magazine, the UK’s leading publication for the social and affordable housing sector. Listen to find out more about the key issues in housing today, with input from the sector’s leading voices

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.@JSimpsonjourno discusses the crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of flats in England with @martinboydlkp, @Jamrat_ and an affected leaseholder #UKhousing

The crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of flats which could grind the housing market to a halt

In June 2017, a terrible fire tore through the cladding on Grenfell Tower, claiming 72 lives. After the blaze, it emerged that other blocks of flats were covered in similar combustible materials.

Three years on, the scale of the crisis has grown to involve numerous types of external wall systems, affecting thousands of buildings across the country. Progress in fixing them is proving painstakingly slow as arguments continue over who should be made to pay and government funding comes up short.


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Boris Johnson hints at help for leaseholders in buildings under 18m hit by cladding issuesBoris Johnson hints at help for leaseholders in buildings under 18m hit by cladding issues
EWS: Why the attempt to fix the cladding and mortgage crisis is not workingEWS: Why the attempt to fix the cladding and mortgage crisis is not working
The next fire won’t wait. Here are the 10 steps to End Our Cladding ScandalThe next fire won’t wait. Here are the 10 steps to End Our Cladding Scandal

For the people living in these blocks, that means not only safety fears but potential financial ruin. Last December, the industry tried to come up with a solution in the form of the External Wall System 1 (EWS) process, but it is not working as the problems continue to spiral.

In this episode of The Housing Podcast – following the launch of new asks that make up our End Our Cladding Scandal campaign – we discuss the past, present and future of the EWS crisis with three people who are close to the issue.

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