New hope for residents ‘trapped’ by unsafe cladding

HOMEOWNERS “trapped” in buildings with dangerous cladding were given fresh hope that they will no longer have to “live in fear”, after the Government launched an inquiry into its removal.

The Government last year allocated £200million to fix private tower blocks wrapped in combustible Grenfell-style cladding, following the blaze in North Kensington that killed 72 people.

But hundreds of other buildings encased in different flammable materials were left without financial support to correct their problem.

The housing, communities and local government committee (HCLGC) will examine whether enough money is being dedicated to removing combustible cladding from high-rise homes.

Some 1,375 buildings, home to 550,000 people, have unsafe cladding, according to the Association of Residential Managing Agents.

Pressure groups praised the inquiry as a “quick and decisive” way of shining a light on the financial burden faced by many residents, who have seen insurance or mortgage premiums rise, and have funded 24-hour fire patrols.

A UK Cladding Action Group spokesman said: “Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders 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. 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.”

Clive Betts, the HCLGC chairman, said: “The Government is providing financial support to enable the removal of ACM (aluminium composite material) cladding from privately owned buildings, but this appears to be far short of what is necessary to address the real scale of the issue.”