Manchester Cladiators

We believe that there needs to be an urgent national effort to remediate all affected buildings, starting now.

All buildings of any height with ACM cladding should be fully remediated of all fire safety defects by December 2021. Buildings with any other fire safety defect, including non-ACM cladding, should be remediated before the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2022. The Government must pro-actively lead this process through the prioritisation of buildings and allocation of remediation resources based on risk.

While the £1bn Building Safety Fund is welcome, it does not go far enough. We continue to call for a Fund that:

     • Applies to all high-risk buildings—of any height.
     • Covers a range of internal and external fire safety defects.
     • Covers all costs associated with remediation works and reimburses 
        leaseholders who have already paid or taken loans.

Funding of remediation should reflect where blame lies. It is clear that there have been widespread failures. What is also clear, however, is that our residents are in no way to blame. After providing the money up front, the Government should:
    • Actively seek to recover funds from the construction companies, 
       Architects, suppliers of faulty products, Approved Inspectors and any 
       others who are found to be responsible for fire safety defects.
    • Undertake a review of proportionate taxes on freeholders, developers 
       and others to help fund these remedial works. This should include 
       consideration of a temporary levy linked to the sale of new-build 
       properties.

The Government must ensure that Social Housing providers have full and equal access to the Building Safety Fund

The Government must compel those in positions of responsibility to be honest with their residents about fire safety defects in their buildings.

Our residents are facing bills of thousands of pounds for interim measures such as costly, unsustainable and, in some cases, ineffective waking watches. Guidance must allow an urgent move to more sustainable and safe measures such as fire alarms and sprinklers, and the Government must fund all interim measures through the Building Safety Fund.

The Government should act as an insurer of last resort for buildings unable to obtain insurance. For other buildings, it should underwrite a percentage of the insurance on any affected building where premiums have soared in the last two years, to reduce costs for our residents

We call on the Government to take full control of the EWS1 system and put in place a much faster and fairer process. The Government should provide necessary funding to ensure that all affected buildings are surveyed within the next 12 months.

The Government must ensure that residents in affected buildings are offered support by the NHS to cope with the physical and mental health toll of living in potentially dangerous buildings.

We remain concerned that the new Building Safety Bill imposes new charges on our residents. We demand the Government makes protecting leaseholders from both historic and future unaffordable costs a key and definitive commitment for its new legislation.