Politics

Funding for to support flammable cladding replacement 'falling short', MPs warn


Funding to support the replacement of flammable cladding on high risk buildings appears to be ‘falling short’, MPs have warned.

The Commons Housing committee today launched an inquiry to scrutinise progress in removing the cladding from privately owned buildings and financially supporting homeowners.

A £200 million pot created last year can only be used to remove the same type of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding that was used on Grenfell Tower, and does not extend to other flammable materials such as High Pressure Laminate (HPL), campaigners have said.

But 143 of the 175 properties with this kind of cladding are yet to begin the work of removing them.

In the meantime, the cost of round-the-clock fire patrols and increased insurance premiums can run to tens of thousands of pounds.

Other burdens include increased emotional strain, the financial costs of paying for fire patrols, increased insurance premiums and difficulties in accessing mortgage finance.

The Association of Residential Managing Agents estimate up to 500,000 people lived in homes that had some form of combustible cladding.


And the National Housing Federation has put the potential cost of removal at £10 billion for the social housing sector alone.

Committee chair Clive Betts said: “The knock-on effect of dangerous cladding on buildings has been significant, with homeowners facing increased insurance or mortgage premiums, and even having to fund round-the-clock fire patrols simply to stay in their own homes.

“The Government is providing financial support to enable the removal of ACM cladding from privately owned buildings, but this appears to be far short of what is necessary to address the real scale of the issue.”

The inquiry will look at the quality and effectiveness of Government support and, in particular, the pace of remediation.

It comes after building managers and campaigners sent an open letter to new Chancellor Rishi Sunak, saying he had a “golden opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and rescue hundreds of thousands of worried and vulnerable residents”.

And MPs have urged the Government to announce ring-fenced money in next week’s budget to remove all forms of dangerous cladding.

The UK Cladding Action Group said it was grateful the committee had acted “quickly and decisively to focus a light on this important national issue”.

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A spokesman said: “Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders across the country are living in fear in their own homes. We are trapped, mentally and financially.

“We are being legally forced to bear the full financial burden of fixing building fire safety and cladding defects that were not of our making.

“Leaseholders, the completely innocent party in this nightmare, are facing unimaginable mental anguish, despair, financial ruin, homelessness, bankruptcy, and in some cases, even the loss of our careers.

“Our only mistake was to do the right thing and work hard to buy a home.

“We hope the inquiry will shine a light into the decades of faulty, unclear or ambiguous building regulations and lack of oversight that have caused such unsafe properties to be built, signed off and sold with impunity.”





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