THE ROYAL Institute of British Architects (RIBA) called the plans ‘naïve’ and said it was ‘frankly shocked’ at the limitations, while leaseholders were ‘confused and stressed’ by the announcement.
The announcement on Wednesday saw the government reveal a five point strategy that aims to ‘provide reassurance to homeowners and confidence to the housing market’. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced that the government would fund removal of combustible cladding ‘for all leaseholders in high-rise buildings’ above 18m, while a new levy and tax on developers would ‘ensure industry contributes’, with the measures to ‘boost the housing market and free up homeowners to once again buy and sell their properties’.
The £3.5bn in new funding means a total of £5bn has been provided by the government, with the complete funding of all cladding for buildings 18m and above ensuring ‘funding is targeted at the highest risk buildings in line with longstanding independent expert advice and evidence’. The government cited Home Office analysis of fire and rescue service statistics, which showed that buildings between 18m and 30m ‘are four times as likely to suffer a fire with fatalities or serious casualties’ than apartment buildings ‘in general’.
Lower rise buildings between 11m and 18m will ‘gain new protection’ from a ‘generous new scheme’ that will pay for cladding removal via a ‘long-term, low interest, government-backed financing arrangement’ meaning no leaseholder will ‘ever pay more than’ £50 a month towards cladding remediation. The government claimed this would ‘provide reassurance and security’ to leaseholders, while mortgage providers ‘can be confident’ that where cladding needs to be removed, properties ‘will be worth lending against’.
It also said it was working with industry to ‘reduce the need’ for external wall review (EWS1) forms, thus ‘preventing leaseholders from facing delays’ and allowing for purchases and sales. A ‘Gateway 2’ developer levy was also announced, that will be ‘targeted’ and ‘apply when developers seek permission to develop certain high-rise buildings’, alongside a new tax for the UK residential development sector that aims to raise £2bn over a decade to fund cladding remediation.
The tax aims to ‘ensure that the largest property developers make a fair contribution to the remediation programme, reflecting the benefit they will derive from restoring confidence to the UK housing market’. Legislation being brought forward this year to ‘tighten the regulation’ of building safety will, alongside review the construction products regime, help ‘prevent malpractice arising again’.
On the EWS1 situation, the government said it was ‘aware’ that securing ‘appropriate’ professional indemnity insurance for the work was a ‘major barrier’, and so it said it was ‘committing’ to work towards a ‘targeted, state-backed’ indemnity scheme for professionals unable to obtain said insurance for the EWS1 surveys. It would ‘work closely’ with industry to design such a scheme, with more details to come.
As well as the FPA, the Fire Brigades Union, National Fire Chiefs Council, London Fire Brigade and the Institution of Fire Engineers all responded to the announcement. The government also faced a ‘backlash’ from its own MPs and other interested parties including cladding campaigners, while developers gave the plans a ‘cautious welcome’.
However, Dezeen reported that RIBA has criticised the government for its ‘naïve’ decision to only fund removal of cladding from housing ‘over a certain height’, with the institute’s Jane Duncan stating that ‘whilst additional funding to speed-up cladding remediation’ on buildings above 18m ‘must be welcomed’, she was ‘frankly shocked by the government’s continued underestimation of the scale of our building safety crisis’.
The news outlet reported that Mr Jenrick had ‘consulted with fire safety experts and concluded’ that buildings between 18m and 30m ‘should be prioritised’, but RIBA argued the government must do more for buildings below 18m and their residents. Ms Duncan added that ‘fire does not discriminate by height’, stating that ‘by only agreeing to fund removal’ above 18m ‘and offering a second-rate loan scheme to the desperate owners of buildings’ above 11m, ‘policymakers are continuing to fail thousands of vulnerable people’.
She noted in turn that while ‘we await further detail […] it would be naïve to think these measures alone will solve the terrifying reality that so many people living in unsafe buildings face through no fault of their own’. Inside Housing meanwhile reported on the views of leaseholders in buildings below 11m, who said the proposals were ‘devastating’ and ‘left them confused and facing more stress and uncertainty’.
Leaseholder Harry Allen, who lives in a three storey block in London clad in timber with timber balconies – which, like other fire safety defects, are not covered by the funding – stated: ‘We feel it has provided no clarity for people living in blocks under four storeys. We are both in our 50s and were looking forward to retirement, but now we are both scared that all we can look forward to is more stress, uncertainty and expense.’
Another leaseholder, who lives in a four storey block only 8m high, said she was confused as to whether her block could even access the loans, despite having a completed EWS1 form stating remediation was required to replace wooden balconies. She added: ‘Jenrick’s easy interchange between describing buildings of 11m to 18m and between four to six storeys for the loan proposal was anything but clear.
‘What happens to us who have already got an EWS but might now fall out of scope, would we have to declare it at sale, would we be able to withhold it? Could we have the accompanying fire report rewritten to draw a new conclusion? Even this would require further cost to the leaseholder to get the updates to the report.’
Angela Jones, a leaseholder at the Ridgemont Place Estate in London – clad in timber and expanded polystyrene insulation that both need to be removed – again lives in a block four storeys tall, with all of the blocks that height or smaller. She said that the ‘majority’ of leaseholders in buildings below 18m had ‘effectively’ seen ‘huge amounts of market value […] wiped out’ by the announcement calling for the advice note that brought blocks under 18m into scope to be rescinded or works funded.
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