TOWERING INJUSTICE
Millions stuck with fire-trap homes after Grenfell ++ They’re hit by £2bn bill for safety work and insurance ++ As cladding crisis rocks entire housing market, Mail demands: End this...
HOMEOWNERS in dangerous buildings are being hit with crippling bills because ministers have ‘buried their heads in the sand’ since the Grenfell disaster.
About four million people are affected, with more than a million flatowners paying £2.2 billion a year for safety measures and extra insurance.
The scandal, which has left families stuck in fire traps facing repair bills of up to £115,000, threatens to wreck the housing
market as a whole, with the flats becoming unsellable. The Daily Mail today calls on ministers to fix Britain’s dangerous homes within 18 months and to spare leaseholders the crippling financial burdens.
We are demanding that repairs be completed by June 2022 and that the Government provide the necessary funding up front as soon as possible. Firms responsible for safety failures should also be made to pay their fair share.
The Mail’s campaign is backed by industry bodies and more than a dozen MPs from across the political spectrum.
Tory MPs Stephen McPartland and Royston Smith are leading a backbench rebellion to ensure leaseholders do not have to pay for repairs.
Legislation to overhaul building and fire safety standards is expected to return to Parliament by the end of the month. The Draft Building Safety Bill, one of two on the issue, leaves leaseholders liable for the cost of fixing historical safety defects.
Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders in unsafe flats face average bills of £40,000 – and some of up to £115,000 – to replace dangerous cladding, similar to that found on Grenfell Tower in west London, where an inferno killed 72 people in June 2017.
They are already paying at least £2.2 billion a year between them while they wait for work to begin, the Mail can reveal, meaning homeowners are haemorrhaging an incredible £6 million for every day that work is delayed. Some have already been made bankrupt and handed back the keys to their flats.
The figure takes into account the cost of insurance hikes, 24/7 fire patrols known as ‘waking watches’, safety tests and new alarm systems – all paid for by leaseholders. But the true cost is likely to be far
‘Only bold action can fix this’
higher as the analysis does not include the costs of collapsed sales and mortgage rate increases caused by safety fears.
Insurance bills alone have increased by £1.6 billion a year – equal to the entire current Government fund for remediation work.
The analysis, carried out by the Mail alongside the Association of Residential Managing Agents and the Building Safety Register data firm, sparked calls for Government action.
Mr McPartland, the MP for Stevenage in Hertfordshire, said: ‘This is shocking evidence of leaseholders being left behind with many being forced into bankruptcy. The Government has to step in and provide a safety net.
‘It’s time [Housing Secretary] Robert Jenrick got out of his ivory tower, stopped talking and started helping. He could start by supporting the Mail’s brilliant campaign.’
Labour MP and public accounts committee chairman Meg Hillier added: ‘While the Government and professional bodies argue the toss about what to do, it’s leaseholders who are paying the crippling day-to-day costs of the biggest consumer and fire safety failures in a generation.’
Campaign group Grenfell United said: ‘We are proud to add our voices alongside thousands of leaseholders and tenants to this campaign. For over three years the Government has been burying its head in the sand about the seriousness of the cladding scandal and the thousands of unsafe homes across the country. The knowledge that another Grenfell-like fire could happen at any time keeps us awake at night. Only bold action from the Government can fix this.’
The Government says work is ‘progressing well’, but just 202 out of a possible 12,000 dangerous buildings have been fixed. Experts believe it could take another ten years to complete safety work at the current rate, despite MPs demanding it be completed by June 2022.
Meanwhile, 1.27 million private flats are currently unsellable due to clumsy attempts to resolve the crisis. New rules mean homeowners require a form to prove their building is free of dangerous cladding, but there are fewer than 300 qualified engineers to carry out the checks.
Leaseholders have been told they may have to wait up to ten years to get one, while low- risk buildings without cladding have also been caught up in red tape.
It means four million Britons could be directly affected by the crisis, based on average household size and including those in social housing. The number of affected properties accounts for 5 per cent of England’s private homes, and experts have warned it risks strangling the housing market. The Government has set aside £1.6 billion to fund the repair work, but MPs expect total costs to amount to £15 billion.
Leaseholders effectively rent their homes from freeholders, who own the land the properties are built on. But it is leaseholders who are legally liable to pay for repairs.
A Government spokesman said work was ‘complete or under way’ in 84 per cent of high-rise buildings with Grenfellstyle cladding, although this does not include thousands of buildings with other types of dangerous defects.
He added that its priority was removing dangerous cladding and it was ‘considering a range of options to fund future remediation work’.
The Association of British Insurers said: ‘Some types of cladding present a greater fire risk, which has to be reflected in the cost of insurance.’