Fresh hope for homeowners trapped in cladding scandal

Many owners will not be asked for dreaded safety certificates, says Adam Williams ‘This fiasco is a disaster for leaseholders’

Residents who own properties in blocks with little cladding could be freed as soon as next month from the bureaucratic nightmare that has valued their homes at zero.

Surveyors want to introduce new rules within weeks that would greatly reduce the number of buildings that are required to pass cladding tests.

This would allow thousands of transactions to resume and alleviate some of the cladding-related logjam that is hitting the property market.

It comes as campaigners and politicians have criticised proposals from a government appointee that could see residents charged thousands of pounds if their properties have cladding.

As many as 4.6 million homes have been caught in the property crisis, the Telegraph disclosed this week, including many properties that have little or no cladding. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the trade body, wants to urgently introduce new rules to allow some sales to resume without

I have spent my whole political life believing in a homeowning democracy and encouraging people to get themselves on to the property ladder. We get people to buy into that dream – sometimes using subsidies or tax breaks – and then we retrospectively change the regulations, abandoning tens of thousands of people in unsafe and unsellable properties. Whichever way you cut this, it is a disaster for leaseholders. This government didn’t cause the crisis, but it has an opportunity to solve it. This fiasco has been going on for far too long. It shouldn’t need a revolt, it needs a solution. If our amendment becomes law, it will prevent the remedial costs of existing defects being passed down. Leaseholders have been sold the dream of home ownership by the current and previous governments. Surely, finding ways to help keep our constituents’ homes safe echoes the Conservative value of home ownership and is the responsibility of this government. Royston Smith, Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen an External Wall Fire Review ( EWS1). Banks and surveyors routinely ask for this certificate to prove that a property does not have unsafe cladding, but many more homeowners are being asked than originally expected. In some cases even bungalow owners have been asked for the review, which can cost thousands of pounds.

Surveyors want all blocks over six storeys to be exempt from EWS1 checks if they have no cladding. Buildings of five or six storeys will not have to pass the test if less than 25pc of the building’s external walls are clad, unless highly flammable aluminium or metal composite material, as used on Grenfell Tower, is present. For all buildings above five storeys, an EWS1 form will be required if timber balco

‘Why should we be left with another mortgage, increased charges and potential bankruptcy?’

nies are stacked vertically above each other. Buildings of four storeys or fewer will be exempt unless they have the most dangerous cladding. A public consultation on the plans will run until Jan 25 and Rics wants to implement the new rules by the end of February.

While this will help those in safer flats, residents in blocks with dangerous cladding still face huge repair bills. An amendment to the Government’s Fire Safety Bill, proposed by the Conservative MPs Royston Smith and Stephen McPartland, would prevent costs being passed to leaseholders. Mr Smith described the situation as a “fiasco” and urged the Government to save residents from ruinous bills. More than 20 MPs from across the political divide have supported the proposals.

The Government has asked Michael Wade, an insurance executive, to consider how cladding repairs could be funded. His preference is for 30-year loans to be offered to building owners, who can recoup the cost through increased service charges for residents. This plan has received a hostile reception from leaseholders, who believe they should not have to foot the bills. Deepa Mistry, a cladding campaigner, said: “We did not build these flats or choose the materials, so why should we be left with a second mortgage, increased service charges and potential bankruptcy?”

A rival plan by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, a charity, and former Bank of England economist Dean Buckner would see a special-purpose bond created to fund the repair work. It would be recovered over decades by a small levy on developers and extra taxes on foreign buyers.

UK Finance and the Building Societies Association, which represent the banking sector, said they were not backing any specific proposals but leaseholders should not pay.

A government spokesman said it had not made a decision and plans would be set out in due course.