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Following the publication of his open letter to the industry regarding the government’s plans to fix the cladding crisis earlier today, the Secretary of State for Housing, Michael Gove, has made a statement to the House of Commons, setting out further details of the plans. A summary of the announcement can be read below.
The Secretary of State said that the government must take their share of the responsibility for the building safety crisis and reiterated the government’s position that leaseholders should not be held responsible for funding remediation works. He stated that “the industries who profited whilst they caused the problem, and those who continue to profit as they make it worse” should be held accountable.
As set out in HBF’s briefing earlier today, the Housing Secretary has written to developers to convene a meeting over the next few weeks, and report back before the House rises at Easter with a fully funded plan of action including remediating unsafe cladding on 11-18m buildings. Should industry not come to the table and agree to a solution, the government will be forced to impose one. Gove acknowledged HBF’s commitment to work constructively with the government on this.
Gove also announced that a new dedicated team is being established to pursue and expose companies at fault and to force them to shoulder the burden of making buildings safe.
In addition, the next phase of the Building Safety Fund will open in the coming months and the pace with which money is being distributed to blocks will be accelerated, so that work can begin. A new portal will also be opened for leaseholders, to give them more transparency over the progress of works on their building.
Gove confirmed that the loans scheme for leaseholders to finance cladding remediation would be scrapped for those in medium-rise buildings, and that no leaseholders living in buildings over 11 metres would ever face any costs for fixing dangerous cladding. He also pledged that the government would protect leaseholders from eviction as a result of current cladding costs whilst these arrangements were put in place.
The government will provide an additional £27 million of funding to install fire alarms in all high-risk buildings to keep residents safe and end the misuse of costly waking watch measures, which are usually paid for by leaseholders.
The government will also introduce amendments to the Building Safety Bill to retrospectively extend the legal right of building owners and leaseholders to demand compensation from their building’s developer for safety defects up to 30 years old.
The Secretary of State stated there had been a misinterpretation of the government’s Consolidated Advice Note. He said that currently buildings which were safe were being categorised as unsafe and therefore unnecessary cladding remediation works were having to take place where other measures, such as installing sprinklers, could be used instead.
Gove confirmed that he was withdrawing the Consolidated Advice Note. He added that updated guidance would be published this week. The new guidance, named PAS 9980, has been developed by the British Standards Institute and will take a more risk-based approach to danger. It is hoped the new approach will reduce the amount of remediation needed.
In the minority of buildings where valuers deem EWS1 forms are still necessary, the government will introduce an indemnity scheme for building assessors to give them greater confidence to exercise professional judgement. The government will also begin auditing building assessments to make sure expensive remediation is only being advised where necessary to remove a threat to life.
As part of their wider work to make the housing system more fair, the government confirmed they will be putting forward the recommendations of the Hackitt review into law and the commencement of the Fire Safety Act, which is due shortly.
More detail on the Government’s plans can be read here. HBF’s briefing on the Secretary of State’s letter can be read here.
We will keep members updated of any further developments.
Laura Markus
Policy and Public Affairs Advisor
