THE HOUSEBUILDER has ‘set aside’ the funds to ‘address cladding safety issues in some of the buildings it has previously worked on’, specifically 26 buildings ‘that may be affected’.
Evening Standard reported on Persimmon’s allocation of the money in its 2020 financial results ‘to contribute to any necessary work’ on 26 buildings that ‘may be affected by the cladding issue’, with the news outlet noting that the company has ‘previously sold’ individual flats to buyers, and freehold of a building to a third party.
The company said that it has ‘not been a major developer’ of high rises, adding: ‘We believe we account for less than one percent of all high-rise developments. However, in the past we have built multi-storey buildings which met all the fire safety rules and regulations in place at the time, but which used cladding materials which may now be considered unsafe and require removal.’
As part of this, it has identified nine high rises over 18m that it built ‘where, in-line with government guidance, cladding may need to be removed’, and while it does not own any of these – and ‘the legal responsibility and duty to ensure the building is safe rests with the current owners’ – it will provide technical support ‘to ensure the building is made safe’. Should a building owner not ‘step up and accept their responsibilities’, it ‘stands ready to provide the support necessary’ to do the work.
Below 18m meanwhile, the government recommended a ‘risk-based approach’, and Persimmon has identified 17 buildings that might have cladding ‘requiring detailed investigation’. It said that where it owns the building ‘it will lead this work’, and where it does not ‘it will support the owners and other parties in their efforts to ensure the buildings are safe for residents’. Should an owner in this case fail to meet ‘obligations’, it will again ‘provide the support to make sure’ work happens.
The company also said that it was ‘in the process’ of writing to building owners and managers to ‘inform them of the findings of its review and to agree next steps’, with Persimmon noting that it is its ‘intention to progress matters as swiftly as possible, minimising uncertainty and concern for residents’.
Chairman Roger Devlin commented: ‘The concern around now banned cladding is affecting many thousands of homeowners who live in high-rise buildings right across the country. At Persimmon we believe we have a clear duty to act to address this issue. So today we are setting aside £75 million towards any necessary cladding remediation and safety work in 26 developments we built.
‘This is a decision which we believe is not only right for residents but also the right thing for us to do as one of the leading housebuilders in the UK. We want Persimmon to be a business with a long-term, responsible and sustainable future and hope our actions today demonstrate a clear commitment to these values.’
In April 2019, Persimmon inspected ‘hundreds’ of homes in Plymouth, after the news earlier that year that a resident in a block of flats in Exeter claimed his pet python’s escape and discovery ‘exposed fire safety breaches’ in ‘missing’ fire safety compartmentation. It later admitted it was inspecting a ‘wider area of properties’, with inspections broadened out.
Also that year, missing barriers had been confirmed in properties in Cornwall and Devon, and over 650 homes in the south west had ‘missing or incorrectly installed’ barriers. That May a BBC Watchdog Live investigation found that new homes have ‘potentially dangerous’ issues, including being sold with ‘missing or incorrectly installed’ fire barriers.
One Exeter estate had 37% of homes missing fire barriers, and ‘serious breaches ha[d] gone undetected during construction’, while a 48 apartment Coventry building was evacuated after defects were found. It was then revealed that nearly 50 new builds in Kent were to be inspected due to ‘concerns’ over whether ‘adequate’ fire safety measures had been installed correctly in roofs, and in September 2019 homes in Barry, Wales were found to have the same issues.
In December 2019, the company was found by an independent review it commissioned to have experienced a ‘systemic nationwide failure’ to install firestopping, and was leaving customers exposed to an ‘intolerable risk’ of fire. It also noted that the failure to meet minimum building standards was a ‘manifestation of poor culture’, and urged directors to ‘reconsider Persimmon’s purpose and ambition’, as it has a ‘nationwide problem of missing and/or incorrectly installed cavity barriers in its timber-frame properties’.
Despite having ‘reacted quickly’, Persimmon only inspected the eaves of properties, ‘and not assessed whether the same problem was occurring in party walls and around windows and doors’. The company undertook over 16,000 inspections, and would take ‘all reasonable action to identify and remediate every house’ affected.
A ‘culture of non-observance’ to safety checks, with staff having treated them as a ‘mere box-ticking exercise […] stemm[ed] from a belief that any single stage is not important, as another check or inspection will follow later’. Another development in Cornwall was inspected, while Dame Judith Hackitt stated that she would be ‘very surprised’ if the homebuilder’s issue with fire safety was just affecting Persimmon.
After that it was reported that the company had inspected around 500 timber framed homes per week via third party contractors as well as its own site based staff. The company refused to say how many homes were failing inspections, but it was understood that ‘this applies to more than half of homes under scrutiny’, and Persimmon had ‘already taken measures’ in early 2020 to ‘introduce a customer retention scheme’, becoming the first housebuilder to do so.
Most recently, in January 2020, building surveyors Arup were appointed to ‘assess’ Persimmon’s fire safety issues after the aforementioned ‘damning report’, with the latter company having had to ‘hastily devise’ a group construction policy that included ‘appropriate supervision and training of construction staff’, engaging Arup as part of this ‘to support the change’.
Arup was set to work as a fire engineer to ‘ensure’ Persimmon ‘correctly identified the extent and nature of the problem in existing properties’ and was ‘taking the necessary steps to rectify any issues’, while also ‘working to ensure that homes built in the future are fire-safe’. Last week, Barratt became the first construction firm to call for a levy on developers to assist those suffering from the cladding crisis, and added that it has spent £55m removing cladding from one London block alone.
Read our article 'What is cladding?' here