Fire-risk cladding families still wait for help

Call for levy on developers

TOWN hall leaders are calling for a new levy to claw back money from property developers to fix the cladding crisis.

Around 11 million people are estimated to be living in buildings covered in dangerous cladding more than three and half years after the Grenfell Tower disaster.

The Local Government Association said ministers must pay for fire safety work for owners of leasehold and recover costs from developers via courts.

It said in a new position paper: “It is particularly important where firms are found to have acted dishonestly, the individuals responsible are held to account and not allowed to walk away with the profits at the expense of the lives lost at Grenfell. To allow this would be a gross injustice.”

The Government should impose a on parts of the building industry in next month’s Budget, the paper also said.

“The LGA believes that the Government needs to pay the upfront costs of remediation and to set a clear and realistic timetable for owners to act,” the paper said.

“It should then seek to recover as much as possible of that cost later from those responsible, either through pursuing legal action against specific develproperties

STUCK Jack and Rebecca outside their block in Cardiff opers or product manufacturers or through a levy on the relevant parts of the industry.”

Many apartments in the UK are leasehold, with the owners paying ground rent to the freeholder, which is often the original developer.

The Government is said to be considering a billion-pound bailout for leaseholders hit by sky-high costs for remedial work.

PM Boris Johnson has promised leaseholders will be protected from massive bills for fixing fire safety defects. He told MPs on Wednesday: “We are determined that no leaselevy

SHOCK Mirror report on the Grenfell disaster holder should have to pay for the unaffordable costs of fixing safety defects that they didn’t cause and are no fault of their own.”

An announcement on new funding is expected within weeks, with extra funding possibly running to billions of pounds, the BBC said. Dozens of MPs have signed an amendment to ensure leaseholders are not expected to bear costs of remedial works.

Tory MP Royston Smith warned: “The cost will be eye-watering.”

Dishonest individuals should not walk away with profit

PAPER FROM LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEADERS