Residents trapped in their homes ‘ have been betrayed’
RESIDENTS TRAPPED in homes they cannot sell because of concerns over cladding have been subject to a “shocking betrayal” by the Government, a Tory MP has said.
In response to the Grenfell Tower fire, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ( MHCLG) made £ 600m available to fund the replacement of aluminium composite material ( ACM) cladding on buildings above 18 metres ( 59ft), but by April this year it had only paid out £ 134m.
In March, it announced a further £ 1bn would be made available to fund the replacement of other forms of dangerous cladding on high- rise buildings but estimates suggest this would meet only around a third of the total costs.
During housing, communities and local government questions, Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland said: “The Secretary of State ( Robert Jenrick) has overseen a shocking betrayal of millions of people who are trapped in flats they cannot sell because of cladding, irrespective of the height.
“Mortgage companies are refusing to remortgage. Shared ownership tenants that only own 10 per cent are being forced to pay 100 per cent of the costs.
“When is the Secretary of State going to get out of his ivory tower, stop talking and start actually helping our constituents?”
Responding for the Government, Mr Jenrick told the Commons: “I don’t agree with that analysis of the actions we have taken as a Government. We’re bringing forward the biggest change to building safety regulation in a generation.
“We’ve outlined plans for our £ 1.6bn fund. Of course, there’s more that we could do. This is one of the most challenging and difficult issues faced by the Government today or indeed any government built up over many generations. But we intend to tackle it and to provide support for those in need.”
The fire at Grenfell Tower in London in June 2017 caused 72 deaths. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the Second World War. Cladding on the building was in part blamed for the disaster.