‘Pact’ to address safety issue
SWANSEA East MS Mike Hedges has welcomed steps by developers in the region to sign legal agreements to fix unsafe cladding on tall buildings.
The move is part of a Welsh Government-backed scheme to tackle fire safety defects in medium and highrise residential buildings in Wales.
Following the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy in west London, in which 72 people died, a number of apartment blocks in Wales were found to have fire safety defects.
Now interest-free loans will be offered to developers in Wales who sign up to the agreement to adapt affected buildings. It is also understood Welsh Government will pay for 28 buildings where a developer is unknown or has ceased trading.
One of the affected buildings is SA1’S nine-storey Altamar in Kings Road, with 149 apartments, which was constructed by Bellway.
All the fire safety deficiencies that were identified in an enforcement notice by Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service were addressed in 2019. However, it is understood there are some issues to be resolved and Bellway has confirmed it has signed up to the Developers’ Pact.
Mr Hedges raised the issue again recently in the Senedd and said: “I was able to raise concerns about cladding in the high rise buildings in SA1.
“Developers should take responsibility for fire issues in buildings they have built.
“I welcome the pact, which now has a legally binding contract to underpin it that has been prepared and shared with developers.
“For buildings such as South Quay who do not have a trading developer, described by the government as orphan buildings, then it is only right that the Welsh Government steps in to support residents.”
Welsh Government minister for climate change Julie James said: “My position has not changed, developers should take responsibility for fire issues in buildings they have developed. Here in Wales, we have not restricted this to high-rise buildings of 18m and over, but instead, we’ve extended that responsibility to include medium-rise buildings of 11m and over in height. Work is under way to address fire safety in such buildings.”
She added: “I agree there needs to be a reform of building safety across the lifecycle of buildings; that is why as well as addressing fire safety issues in our existing building stock, we are taking forward a significant programme of reform to establish a fitfor-purpose building safety regime in Wales.
“I’ve made a commitment to work with developers to ensure fire safety defects are remediated at their cost.
“To this end, I wrote to over 50 of the UK’S largest residential developers to ask them to confirm their position in Wales.
“All these developers have responded (and) either confirmed they had developed no residential buildings of 11m or over in height in Wales, confirmed they had already remediated buildings, or have signed up to the Welsh Government’s Developers Pact.”
A spokesman for Altamar said: “Bellway has signed up to the Developers’ Pact with the Welsh Government. I can confirm that Altamar is one of the buildings that falls within this commitment.
“Similar in principle to the pledge in England, this is a commitment to remediate buildings over 11 metres in height with life critical fire safety issues, which were constructed in Wales since April 5, 1992.
“This reflects our ongoing and responsible Uk-wide approach to building safety.”