Cladding scandal: ‘I cannot believe the Welsh Government’s indifference’ ‘I cannot believe ment’s indifference’
Residents of flats on the doorstep of the Senedd feel their lives are on hold and that they are being excluded from help available to people in England. Political editor Ruth Mosalski reports
JUST metres from the doors of the Senedd are seven apartment blocks which contain 457 homes. Built in 2016, flats within the Celestia development are listed as “executive and stylish” with some boasting “water views” and allocated parking and concierge – but the residences have been besieged with problems.
In 2019, it emerged that the flats had “very poor” or “non-existent fire stopping”.
It follows the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire disaster which left 72 people dead. Safety inspections on high-rise blocks across the UK revealed not just dangerous cladding, but other fire safety faults including defective insulation, flammable balconies and missing fire breaks.
Celestia residents had already highlighted a long list of problems, from ruptured sewage pipes flooding their apartments, render falling off buildings and being “banned” from their balconies over safety concerns.
Many said they felt like “prisoners in their own homes”.
It is going to cost millions to remedy, and the residents of Celestia have no certainty when or how that will happen.
They also feel like second-class citizens of the UK.
If they lived in England, they could have benefited from an agreement facilitated by the UK Government in which 35 developers have contributed £2bn towards fixing buildings over 11m tall with similar defects that they had a role in constructing.
Developers who haven’t signed up have been warned they will risk harsh sanctions under the Building Safety Bill going through Parliament this week.
Yet housing is devolved to the Welsh Government and the residents of Celestia feel ministers in Cardiff Bay have failed to grasp the problems they face and the solution they need.
While leaseholders in England won’t have to pay the costs of remediating historic building safety defects like cladding, at Celestia in Cardiff residents are already facing financial pain. They say their building defects and fire safety issues will cost around £14m to put right.
In January, they received letters telling them the service charge had to be put up to £6,000 for the year to raise the millions needed to repair the external issues and that £3,000 was due immediately.
Not everyone could, or would pay. However, the management board said it was the only solution because a detailed, costed plan of the external repair work was the only way to cap a huge hike in their insurance bills.
Without the work starting from the next financial year, they have been told to expect insurance prices to go up 500-600%.
Leaseholder and chairman of Celestia Management Company Limited (CMCL) Mark Thomas explained the trauma that residents have been through.
“I thought I was buying a highquality apartment,” he said.
Instead, what has followed is homes besieged by problems, with financial implications, untold stress, and ongoing legal battles.
One example is the instructions they were told to follow if there was a fire. They were initially told that the design meant someone could stay, if needed, in their apartment for two hours because of the firebreaks put in. However, the resulting checks meant the advice was changed to an evacuation policy because there was no internal compartmentalisation, and a walking watch policy had to be put in place with someone patrolling the blocks 24/7 looking out for fire.
Redrow agreed, in 2020, to fund repairs needed for internal firebreaks and, despite Covid, that work started and was completed in June 2021.
The majority of blocks have now returned to what had originally been promised – a stay-in-place strategy if there was a fire, which had been switched to an evacuation plan once the issues with the internal firebreaks had been spotted.
However, for one of the blocks, Vega House, that still isn’t back in place because of flooding issues with the designated route for fire vehicle access. The solution would be a sprinkler system for the block, but again there is a cost to that.
The campaigners have all eyes on Westminster to see if the Building Safety Bill passes.
While Redrow has signed up to the UK Government scheme, there is no clarity about what will happen in Wales.
Another key part of the bill will give councils in England the powers to force developers to pay – but, again, it is not known if the same will apply in Wales.
An amendment that has been made as the bill has made its way through Parliament is a “waterfall” scheme, which would mean residents of leaseholds blocks taller than 11 metres won’t be charged any money for cladding remediation work and for non-cladding work.
The new law will seek to make developers and cladding manufacturers pay.
It will then move on to freeholders, if they have the means to pay.
If neither of these routes provides the full sum of money required to fix the block, leaseholders can be billed.
But these costs will be capped at £10,000 nationally and £15,000 in London.
Mr Thomas said he believed that Celestia developer Redrow should be held responsible in Wales and any money leaseholders have already paid for the remediation work through their management fees refunded.
He said: “The English model is what we all want, which is to make the developer accountable, because we’re in devolution we don’t actually know when the Welsh Government is going to pass that bill for Wales.”
They fear the Welsh Government’s
for a taskforce sends them back beginning when a lot of develsuch as the Celestia group, already spent tens of thousands unds finding issues and costing rs. n if a funding route were set up ly, it would take months and hs to filter through. Thomas said: “We already have r plan. We just need the money he other thing that’s important his, which is very critical under uilding Safety Bill, it gives local rities the power to issue what alled remediation orders under on 125 and also remediation, bution orders, which means Redrow don’t step up, the local rity can issue a legal remediarder and force them. the moment we have no idea of the Welsh Government is doing in relation to this. In the last two weeks, the developments in England have been absolutely major.
“Redrow made an announcement to the English government that they would be happy to remediate English homes a month ago, and we’ve heard nothing from any Welsh Government official on this.
“It just beggars belief. It’s one of the biggest stories in England and we have no politician shouting about it.
“We have Redrow, a Welsh-based company, and a month on nothing is being said. I’m not political, but I cannot believe how the government has just shown indifference. It is absolutely staggering the impact that Michael Gove has had in the last month or so and in Wales no-one in the political sphere is talking about this.”
In her most recent statement to
Senedd members, minister Julie James said she understood her plans would not move as quickly as those affected want. Her update said that of the first 248 applications for remedial work, 100 needed “further intrusive surveys”, which will lead to a detailed report identifying the fire safety work needed.
Mr Thomas said their reality was that they were still living in unsafe properties, which have now been known about for years and problems are not being resolved.
“We have worked incredibly hard to make those buildings safe and they are probably safer than ever, but fundamentally they are covered in wooden firebreaks and they have missing firebreaks so they are unsafe,” he added.
He said he can quote any number of residents who have seen their mental health decline with worries over bills amounting to thousands of pounds.
“You can’t get it out of your head,” he said.
“I go to bed and I wake up thinking about it and we have this sort of blank wall from the Welsh Government, it’s just horrific, whereas in England there is quite a sense of optimism.”
On May 4 a group of 40 Celestia residents are due to appear in court after mounting a joint action against Redrow.
For the past two and a half years the claim has been stayed, but Redrow now plans to strike it out.
“As it stands today, they’re still proposing on May 4 to ask the courts in Cardiff to strike out our claim, largely based on the example out of time, and we just cannot understand their mentality because on Thursday of this week the English Buildings Bill could change it all anyway.”
In response to the concerns about the difference between English and Welsh legislation, a Redrow spokesman said: “While we await the details of any proposed Welsh Government plan, we will of course look to treat our customers in England and Wales fairly. Our position that we don’t believe leaseholders should pay for life-critical fire safety issues applies regardless of borders.”
The spokesman added: “In our Interim Results we said we believe the housebuilding industry should play its part in resolving the issue of legacy fire safety in high-rise buildings and that the financial burden should not be borne by leaseholders.
“We have signed the government’s pledge regarding the remediation of life-critical fire safety issues in buildings over 11m that we developed in the past 30 years in England. This is a devolved issue with Scotland, for example, having signalled that it is taking a different stance to the English government. The pledge is in addition to the Residential Property Developer Tax of 4% of pre-tax profit, which came into effect on 1 April, 2022.
“This is a highly complex matter and remediation works are expected to take a number of years to complete. We will liaise with building owners and management companies as we begin this process.”
The spokesman was unable to comment on the legal proceedings due to take place on May 4.
The Welsh Government was asked to confirm if it would follow any UK Government legislation, and when it would bring that into place and if it intended to allow councils in Wales to chase any developer who doesn’t pay as required.
A spokesman said: “We have repeatedly pressed the UK Government to adopt a UK-wide approach to the building safety levy. We have committed £375m over the next three years to invest in repair work as part of a whole-building approach – which goes beyond replacing just cladding defects. Since we announced the Welsh Building Safety Fund in September 2021, digital surveys have been completed at all 248 buildings where expressions of interest were submitted.
“More than 100 medium- and high-rise buildings have been identified for further investigations and these will be completed by the end of the summer. We will continue to work with the construction sector in Wales to ensure their fair contribution towards fixing fire safety issues.”