RESIDENTS FEAR £70,000 BILLS

Government’s cladding repair fund leaves flat owners on the hook

Residents caught in the cladding crisis fear they will be left with repair bills of tens of thousands of pounds to make their homes safe, even if they successfully claim from a government fund.

The Building Safety Fund is designed to pay for the removal of Grenfell-style cladding. However, it does not cover the replacement of dangerous timber balconies and other defects.

Residents have been warned that even if funding applications are successful, there could be further bills to be met.

The Government has set aside £1.6bn for cladding remediation, but experts say this will only fund a fraction of the estimated £15bn repair bill. Official figures show

Successful claimants may face a funding shortfall as repair costs skyrocket

that 2,820 block owners have registered to use the Building Safety Fund, yet only 294 applications have proceeded so far.

Successful claimants may also find a shortfall in funding as the cost of repair work skyrockets. Remediation bills have already started to soar in many cases.

Jim Thomas, owner of a flat in Birmingham, said his freeholder had warned residents that the expected cost of repairs had increased from £4m to £13.2m. This would be the equivalent of a £70,000 bill for each resident.

The Building Safety Fund has also been criticised over residents’ fears that they would be subject to gagging clauses preventing them from speaking to the press about their works.

The Government has since assured affected homeowners that they will be able to speak out.

More than 30 MPs from both major parties have now backed an amendment to the Fire Safety Bill that would protect leaseholders from these costs, including prominent Labour MPs Hilary Benn and Rebecca Long-Bailey.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said: “We understand many people will be worried – our priority is removing dangerous cladding as quickly as possible.”