MARIA MILLER ‘paused’ her support for an amendment to the Fire Safety Bill (FSB) that would have protected leaseholders from the costs of fire safety works to their buildings.
The FSB’s return to the House of Commons this week had seen over 30 Conservative MPs join other parties in backing amendments to ensure leaseholders ‘will not have to pay for emergency fire safety work’. Earlier this month, Labour brought forward a vote and a list of proposals to parliament that aimed to protect leaseholders from paying for fire safety works.
More recently, the amendment had the backing of 38 Conservative MPs, meaning the government was ‘facing potential defeat’. The scale of the rebellion had meant that if two more MPs had backed the amendment it would have passed. The announcement earlier this month by the government revealing a five point strategy that aims to ‘provide reassurance to homeowners and confidence to the housing market’ saw Mr Jenrick announce it would fund removal of combustible cladding ‘for all leaseholders in high-rise buildings’ above 18m.
However, the backlash over the plans saw Mr Johnson criticised by his own MPs, but despite cross party support, the amendments – which also included ones that would have forced the government to implement recommendations from the Grenfell inquiry and to create a national fire safety register - were defeated by 340 to 225.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the Crown Heights high rise in Basingstoke had failed a cladding test in December 2020, with the building housing 250 flats, a gym, two doctors’ surgeries and a convenience store. It was found to have been clad in combustible materials, with expanded polystyrene discovered ‘with no fire breaks’, and leaseholders are set to face bills reaching thousands of pounds to fund a waking watch until a new fire detection system is installed.
These will cost an average of £6,700 per week, with property manager FirstPort stating that a reserve fund will ‘help to cover this cost’, but not guaranteeing that leaseholders ‘will not be expected to cover the costs should this not be enough’. In the event of a fire, residents will have to evacuate, with stay put guidance rescinded, and Mrs Miller stated residents ‘didn’t create these problems [and] should not be left unfairly footing the bill if house builders have failed to put in place essential fire safety measures’.
More recently, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council called the situation a ‘travesty’, and set up a task force of officers from council departments ‘to offer support’. Earlier this week, it was reported that estate agents in the town had been advertising flats for sale in the development.
Basingstoke Gazette has now reported on Mrs Miller having ‘paused’ her support for the leaseholder amendment, and on her comments in the parliamentary debate ahead of the vote. She said that the FSB ‘may not be the right place for further assurance on remediation costs’, despite having told the news outlet earlier this moth that she supported it because it ‘provide[s] more protection to leaseholders’.
She said: ‘Owning your own home is a very British dream, but it has turned into a nightmare for thousands in the aftermath of Grenfell. That is why there is such strength of feeling across the House today. In the UK it should not be high risk to buy a home in a block of flats built and marketed by a reputable house builder under strict building control regimes, only to find that the professional and regulatory checks have been a fiction.
‘That is a situation in which hundreds of my constituents find themselves. It is clear from today’s debate that no one wants residents to pay for this disgraceful behaviour, that there cannot be a blank cheque from government, and that those who caused the problem have to pay for the works that are needed.
‘The only question is how we achieve all that, so I warmly welcome the government’s announcement of an additional £3.5 billion to fund remedial work, a grant scheme for low-rise buildings, a builders levy and a property developer tax. This will be of some reassurance to leaseholders, and a start to making sure that those responsible for the failings are made to pay for what they did wrong.’
She also said that she ‘accept[ed] the argument’ of Home Office minister Kit Malthouse, who had said the FSB was not the right place for the debate, and added: ‘In the meantime, the government have to show how funding promises will work in practice. I thank my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for working with me to identify how funds will flow for the waking watch relief fund and remedial works.
‘Making this work in practice has to be a ministerial priority in the coming weeks. There also needs to be complete transparency from Homes England on which buildings have been accepted into the scheme, and that if eligible costs legitimately showing location of increase from the initial assessment, applicants can claim from the fund for a cost variation.
‘Above all, these plans need to be in place as quickly as possible, and the government need to tackle the insurance problems that many leaseholders now face. Remediation works will not happen overnight, but it is in no one’s interest to delay this bill, which includes provisions from my 2018 fire safety ten-minute rule bill. If there is not clear progress, more action will be needed in the Building Safety Bill when it is considered later this year.’