Victims of cladding scandal ‘suicidal’
Flat owners living in worthless properties following fire tragedy
VICTIMS of the cladding scandal in Birmingham have considered suicide after finding their homes are practically worthless.
City MP Shabana Mahmood, told the House of Commons that the situation “has wrought emotional and financial devastation upon my constituents who live in affected buildings”.
There was a ray of hope for householders as housing minister Chris Pincher, the MP for Tamworth, said the Government will announce “very shortly” a financial solution to protect leaseholders from high costs to deal with unsafe cladding, but told MPs: “There is no quick fix.”
Attention focused on cladding following the Grenfell fire disaster in 2017, which led to the deaths of 72 people. A fire spread swiftly in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, west London, and the exterior cladding used in the building was found to be partly to blame.
Other properties were found to be fitted with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding similar to that used at Grenfell. Many more have non-ACM cladding which nonetheless fails to meet Building
Regulations. Homeowners affected are often leaseholders in tower blocks.
Many have found it is difficult or impossible to insure properties, or have faced huge bills for insurance or repairs.
Owners have also found banks will not provide a mortgage for their homes, making them impossible to sell and effectively worthless.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Mahmood said: “The human impact of this crisis on leaseholders is horrendous.
“One constituent recently told me: ‘It is pretty much all I talk and think about. I have thought about killing myself and have started counselling to try to manage the thoughts and my anxiety’.”
She said: “The Islington Gates development in my constituency saw a hike in insurance prices from £36,000 to £321,000.
“The Brindley House development in my constituency has the horrible honour of being the first building, in May last year, to find itself uninsured as a result of the cladding scandal. It was eventually able to secure cover, but it was being quoted prices of half a million pounds.”
She said developers should be forced at least to contribute towards the costs.
“It is unconscionable that ordinary
people who are wholly innocent and have done nothing wrong are losing everything that they have ever worked for, and that those responsible are getting off scot-free.”
Labour is calling for national taskforce to “get a grip” on the cladding crisis.
This was supported in the Commons by 263 votes to zero, although the Opposition’s motion was nonbinding
and does not compel ministers to act.
Mr Pincher said a further announcement will be made “very shortly”, adding in his conclusion: “We will work to restore the inalienable right for everyone in this country to live somewhere which is decent, which is secure and, above all, which is safe, a place that they can rightly and proudly call home.”