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The government is announcing a long-awaited bailout package worth billions of pounds for homeowners affected by the siding scandal.
Almost four years after the Grenfell fire tragedy, in which 72 people died, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is unveiling a rescue plan that could benefit more than a million people.
In a statement from Commons, he is expected to promise help for renters who have been unable to sell, re-mortgage or insure homes since the Grenfell Hell in June 2017.
Jenrick is expected to announce a £ 5bn rescue fund to help homeowners who are trapped in floors lined with potentially lethal coatings and face repair bills averaging £ 40,000.
But in the movements that will be attacked by MPs, grants to remove cladding are likely to be limited to buildings taller than 18 meters and people in smaller buildings may have to settle for loans.
Labor is already claiming that Jenrick’s proposals are “too rare, too late” and a Tory MP has denounced a move to force some homeowners to borrow as “a shameful betrayal.”
Since Grenfell, the government has already provided a £ 1.6 billion and £ 30 million building safety fund to pay for alarm systems, but MPs and activists have claimed this is extremely inappropriate.
Seventy-two people died in the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017
Faced with mounting demands for action from MPs from all parties, Jenrick is said to have reached an agreement with Chancellor Rishi Sunak on seeking the necessary funds for the repair bills.
Treasury insiders have insisted that Sunak has been “working around the clock” to help people trapped in homes at risk of fire and up to three million unable to sell flats due to security concerns exposed by Grenfell.
The crisis is said to have left many homeowners bankrupt and distressed and sparked claims from MPs that some had committed suicide due to their distress and financial difficulties.
But before Jenrick’s statement, Labor shadow Housing Secretary Thangam Debbonaire said: “Anything that is announced will be too late for those first-time buyers who have already gone bankrupt.”
“Ministers have promised 17 times that renters would not have to pay for a crisis they did not cause. A siding tax on renters would break that promise.
“The government must protect the tenants and the taxpayer, providing upfront funds and prosecuting those responsible.”
And prominent conservative activist Stephen McPartland, a Stevenage MP, told The Times: “It is clear that they have no control over the situation and their incompetence is creating this problem.
“Millions of tenants are facing financial ruin and we will not accept loans. They are not a solution, they are a shameful betrayal.”
Jenrick’s declaration of the Commons also comes as the government tries to prevent a major Conservative rebellion and a defeat of the Commons on its Fire Safety Bill, currently pending in parliament.
More than 40 Conservative MPs are backing an amendment that would prohibit apartment block owners from passing on the costs of removing siding or other fire safety work to their tenants.
Last week, challenged by Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer on the Prime Minister’s questions, Boris Johnson told MPs: “We are determined that no tenant should have to pay the unaffordable costs of repairing security defects they did not cause and that they are not guilty. “
When asked by Mr. McPartland to discard tenant loans, he responded, “Yes … we are absolutely clear that tenants should not have to worry about the cost of repairing historical security defects that they did not cause.”
Earlier in a Commons debate initiated by Labor, Housing Minister Chris Pincher promised to present a solution “very soon” and said it was “wrong and unfair” for tenants to bear the costs of removing combustible siding.
But Conservative MP Bob Blackman, a Harrow East MP, later told The Times: “Three and a half years after the Grenfell tragedy, we still have tenants living in unsaleable, non-mortgage, uninsurable and unsafe properties, and that is a disgrace that we have to correct. “
