Get this cladding mess sorted, PM
OUR daughter and son-in-law, who have a new baby, have been caught up in the cladding scandal. They found a property in a tower block they wanted to buy and, having sold their flat and incurred legal costs, have just been told the cladding doesn’t meet the required fire safety standard.
The management company is trying to pass on the substantial cost of replacing it to the residents.
It looks like the purchase won’t go ahead – a blow for them.
The shocking thing is these young people, and others like them, are innocent victims of the abject failure of other, more powerful and wealthy people to take any responsibility.
The problem stems from a system which allowed inadequate materials to be used and building regulations which weren’t fit for purpose. The whole thing is an utter scandal and it’s about time the Government sorted it out. Tim and Chloë Gudgion Dorchester
It’s unforgiveable that ministers drag their heels over this issue. There are millions of people living in unsafe properties they can’t sell who are being ordered to pay crippling sums to fix the problem. The firms that supplied and used substandard materials should be the ones to pay up, not the leaseholders. Instead of ordering its MPs to abstain on the Labour motion, the Tories need to get a grip. Will it take another Grenfell before anything is done?
L Morris, Gateshead Tyne and Wear
When food producers or drugs or carmakers supply a faulty product they are held liable to repair or replace it. So, why are multi-billion-pound property developers, who built and sold these potential death traps using flammable cladding, being allowed to just walk away from their responsibilities, no doubt with profits intact?
J R Williams, East London
The fallout from the Grenfell tragedy continues with the same or similar cladding still in place on many high-rise buildings. The debate on who pays to remove and/or replace drags on.
I believe the answer is to ensure the cladding manufacturers, some of which blatantly lied about their products, pay the price and shoulder the responsibility.
Harry Miller
New Addington, Gtr London
The Government should step in to help leaseholders over exorbitant bills to replace faulty and dangerous cladding.
It’s a disgrace that hardly anything has been done to sort the problem since the
tragedy of Grenfell Tower in 2017. The Government should either force the landlords of these highrise apartments to pay for safer cladding, or we, as the taxpayers, will have to.
Ken Pennington Stalybridge, Gtr Manchester
People are at their wits’ end being landed with gigantic bills to replace cladding. Many residents are young – how are they expected to find these large sums?
It is outrageous that this is happening when the cladding scandal is not their fault. The Government has failed to hold builders to account.
Tony Howard
Salford, Gtr Manchester
The Government needs to pay for all repairs and refund people who have lost their homes or become bankrupt due to being ordered to pay crippling charges. The way they have treated people, from Grenfell victims to those living with dangerous cladding, is nothing short of criminal.
Ian Hunte, Lincoln