Leaseholders ‘protected’ from cladding costs

The Government has announced a package of measures to protect leaseholders from the cost of removing unsafe ACM cladding from buildings.

It will pay for the removal of unsafe cladding for leaseholders in all residential buildings 18 metres and higher (six storeys or more) in England. 

Non-interest loans will be offered to leaseholders in buildings between 11 and 18 metres (four to six storeys), with a guarantee that they will never pay more than £50 a month for cladding removal costs. 

The Government will also introduce an industry levy and tax to ensure developers pay to make their buildings safe.    

Lord Porter, the LGA’s Building Safety Spokesperson, said: “It is good that the Secretary of State has secured unprecedented funding to ensure leaseholders in high-rise blocks will not have to pay anything towards cladding remediation. 

“This is an important step towards protecting leaseholders from the unfair cost of a crisis that is not of their making, and something the LGA has long-called for.

“No leaseholder should have to pay the costs of making their homes safe. 

“Everything should be done to force developers and product manufacturers to meet the costs they have imposed on the country through decades of failure on an industrial scale. 

“The Grenfell Tower disaster exposed a building safety system that is not fit for purpose. 

“If a building found to be unsafe has been built according to building regulations, then the Treasury needs to pick up the cost of remediation and, if not, then those responsible for building it must pick up the cost to make it safe. 

“If a product on a building has failed, then the manufacturer must be liable for the cost.”

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