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Ministers are prepared to announce billions of pounds in additional support to address the coating crisis that has left homeowners bankrupt and distraught, though key questions remain about how much tenants are expected to contribute.
Robert Jenrick, the secretary of communities, will announce the new measures in parliament on Wednesday after reaching an agreement with the Treasury, as understood by The Guardian.
Ministers will be under intense pressure, including from Conservative MPs, to prevent hundreds of thousands of apartment owners from being forced to pay large sums to replace flammable siding.
The measures follow more than three years of uncertainty since the aftermath of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster, which exposed dangerous defects in thousands of apartment blocks and the ensuing security crisis in buildings that makes houses unfit for use. sell, not mortgage and cannot be insured.
The scale of the new support has not been confirmed, but measures being considered include a £ 5bn grant in addition to the existing £ 1.6bn construction security fund to which tenants can apply. The existing fund has been widely recognized as too small, as investigations uncovered a broader range of fire safety defects beyond combustible coatings.
Around 274,000 floors are estimated to have hazardous coatings, according to the Association of Residential Managing Agents, which equates to more than 650,000 people, although that number is likely to hit the millions when those living in lower-rise structures are taken where they also problems have arisen. consider.
An industry source told The Guardian that they expected the funding to only cover the replacement of the liner rather than other security flaws. They said the grants were expected to cover the rehabilitation of buildings taller than 18 meters and loans for shorter buildings are likely to be offered.
The charity Leasehold Knowledge Partnership said such a policy would be a “bitter disappointment to tenants around the world” and that it would be “embarrassing to treat tenants differently depending on an arbitrary factor such as the height of the building.”
It read: “Tenants of tens of thousands of buildings under 18 meters have been told that they will pay 100% of the costs of correcting the mistakes of others. Tenants of buildings taller than 18 meters can still face ruinous costs to repair defects other than cladding. ”
The government has also considered a £ 2 billion tax on property developers and builders over the next decade, charged at £ 200 million a year. Discussions have reportedly been held on how to increase the amount of money available with long-term government tenant loans.
Over the past two years, the government has announced a series of measures to try to fix the problem, including a £ 1 billion construction safety fund to help with the cost of removing the cladding and £ 30 million to pay for alarm systems.
The government is also keen to deflect a parliamentary defeat after more than 30 Conservative MPs signed an amendment to the fire safety bill now being passed between the Commons and the Lords, which would bar building owners from passing the costs of removing siding or other fire safety work. to its tenants.
Ministers have come under increasing pressure in parliament to act on the crisis, which tenants have said left them bankrupt and suicidal. Labor and a significant number of Conservative MPs have warned ministers that not enough is being done to help tenants. Last month, the Labor Party called for an independent task force on cladding and guaranteed funds for work to make buildings safe.
When asked by Conservative Congressman Bob Blackman last year if he would ensure that tenants didn’t pay “a penny” for security measures, Boris Johnson said he “didn’t want tenants to be forced to pay for remediation.” Blackman told The Guardian on Tuesday that the prime minister must “keep his promise.”
Rituparna Saha, co-founder of the UK Cladding Action Group representing thousands of affected tenants, said the measures should be £ 15bn, which is the estimated cost of all the work required, “a substantial proportion of what was recovered from the construction companies ”.
Renters have been hit by huge bills not only to repair their homes, but also from insurance premiums and mounting costs, such as paying for 24-hour watch patrols. The houses cannot be sold and tenants and tenants have reported a wave of financial and mental health problems as a result of the crisis.
Saha said she feared the announcement would not go far enough: “We need substantial measures once and for all. The government has been yelled and kicked into making these announcements and it is no longer good enough because the people are bankrupt.
Labor’s shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire said: “What is announced will be too late for first-time buyers who have already gone bankrupt. Ministers have promised 17 times that tenants would not have to pay for a crisis they did not cause. A siding tax on tenants would break that promise. The government must protect the tenants and the taxpayer by providing upfront funds and prosecuting those responsible. “
