...while developers offer just £400m
FOUR leading developers have made almost £10 billion in profits since the Grenfell disaster and have pledged just over £400 million to fix unsafe homes. Here, the Mail dissects their offers . . .
PERSiMMon (value: £9.25 billion)
OFFER: £75 million for 26 buildings with potentially dangerous cladding and other safety defects. Nine of these are over 18 metres. Persimmon has made a £3 billion profit since Grenfell. REALITY: The £75 million may only cover around 72 pc of the estimated £104 million bill to fix the 26 unsafe sites. A site in the North-West which has around 400 flats that was part-developed by Persimmon has received quotes of £12 million to fix it. Residents are hoping the development will get up to £6 million from the Government fund — leaving a £6 million shortfall. Persimmon says it has written to the building’s management company offering to ‘discuss what role Persimmon can play in keeping residents safe’.
BARRATT DEvELoPMEnTS (value: £7.4 billion)
OFFER: The building giant has spent £82 million on fixing cladding and other defects on its developments. Last month Barratt, which has made £2.2 billion profit since Grenfell, became the first housebuilder to back calls for a developer levy to help pay for the crisis. REALITY: Barratt has not supplied a list of the housing blocks that are at risk despite repeated requests. This makes it hard to know how much more money is needed to fix their developments. Leaseholders say they have paid tens of thousands of pounds for stop-gap safety measures while they wait for repairs. Others in buildings such as Royal Artillery Quays in Woolwich, south London, are locked in disputes over whether Barratt is responsible for costly safety defects.
TAYLoR WiMPEY (value: £6.29 billion)
OFFER: £125 million for 232 potentially unsafe buildings. Taylor Wimpey says its fund would cover any block built in the past 20 years, including those below 18 metres in height. This is on top of a £40 million pot to cover the cost of replacing flammable cladding.
REALITY: The new fund may only cover around 13 pc of the total amount needed to fix 232 faulty buildings. Experts say this could reach £928 million, based on an average cost of £4 million. The developer insists its fund covers the full remediation costs of all the blocks.
BELLWAY
(value: £3.93 billion) OFFER: £86.8 million to make fire safety improvements to its homes where it has a ‘legal responsibility’. Bellway says this covers all ‘known liabilities for remediation works’ and interim fire safety measures where necessary. It says it no longer has a ‘legal responsibility for historic apartment schemes’. REALITY: It is impossible to gauge how generous Bellway’s pledge is because it has repeatedly refused to say how many of its buildings need fixing. Leaseholders are frustrated that support only extends to blocks for which Bellway still has a ‘legal responsibility’.