Labour calls on ministers to act over Grenfell cladding crisis

Labour has called for urgent protection for leaseholders from the costs of repairing potentially unsafe buildings amid concerns that millions of people in the UK face expensive post-Grenfell improvements.

In a House of Commons debate on Monday, Britain’s opposition party also called for an independent task force on cladding to be established, which would have the power to take action against building owners who refused to carry out remedial work.

The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people, and the inquiry that followed have exposed deficiencies in the building safety regime under which millions of homes have been signed off, and the potential abuse of safety tests by companies supplying the cladding and insulation to those homes.

Fearful about the risks of financing the purchase of potentially unsafe flats, mortgage lenders have refused to lend to buyers unless they can prove the property is safe — an arduous and costly process, hampered by a lack of experts able to complete the assessments. 

Lenders’ requirement for safety assessments has effectively frozen a large swath of the housing market, with homeowners and prospective buyers unable to sign off properties as safe and facing huge bills for temporary safety measures. 

Last May ministers launched a £1bn Building Safety Fund to help towards the removal of dangerous cladding on tower blocks.

But estimates for the total cost of remediation run far higher and Labour has called for more generous funding.

Thangam Debbonaire, shadow housing minister, said the crisis had the potential to effect up to 11m people and risked freezing 16 per cent of the housing market.

She gave the example of Hayley, a first-time buyer in Leeds, who bought a flat under an affordable housing scheme — only to discover the roof of the building was covered in dangerous cladding. She ended up having to pay £300 a month of additional charges for a regular fire patrol: “Hayley declared bankruptcy,” she said. 

Ms Debbonaire called on the government to provide upfront funding to make homes safe and end the “stalemate”. She said there was still nothing to stop building owners passing on the costs to leaseholders.

The government said it wanted building owners not to pass on costs to leaseholders “wherever possible” and to use their own resources or recover costs from warranty schemes or developers.

Chris Pincher, housing minister, said the government was determined to “right the wrongs of the past” and bring about the biggest improvements to building safety for a generation. 

“Many leaseholders have found themselves in a challenging, difficult and agonising situation,” he told MPs. “Their situation is undoubtedly a complex one, its roots extend over several years with no easy answers.”

The minister added draft legislation — the building safety bill — will establish a new building safety regulator and place “clear legal duties” on those that build and manage buildings. 

Labour’s proposed task force would have the power to establish the extent of the cladding crisis, determine which buildings were attended to first and take enforcement action against building owners who refused to undertake remedial work.

The number of homeowners caught up in the crisis was dramatically increased in January 2020 when the government widened the number of properties deemed potentially problematic. 

Its new guidance said all buildings with an external wall system — which could be any type of cladding, practical or decorative — should be assessed for safety. 

According to Labour’s analysis of the New Build Database, as many as 4.6m properties — home to 11m residents — could be affected by the cladding crisis. 

If even a portion of those homes are unsellable because of safety fears, there is a risk of a seize-up in the market for flats — in which first-time buyers are heavily represented. 

“Further delay and inaction is not an option — building insurance will continue to skyrocket. People will go broke,” said Ms Debbonaire.