Grenfell: Campaigners vow to fight fire safety bill

PA Media

Cladding campaigners have vowed to fight on after MPs rejected attempts to shield leaseholders from fire safety costs.

It follows a long running parliamentary battle over who should pay to fix defects and faults following the Grenfell blaze four years ago.

Peers had repeatedly tried to stop the owners of blocks of flats from passing the costs on to leaseholders.

Critics say the "rug" has been pulled out from homeowners.

On Wednesday, MPs voted to remove changes to the Fire Safety Bill, despite a rebellion by 32 Conservatives.

When the Bill then returned to the House of Lords, attempts to reinsert the changes were defeated by 242 votes to 153.

It is due to become law later on Thursday.

• Government defeated again on fire safety measures
• What makes cladding unsafe and what are your rights?
• Grenfell Tower management 'was a mini-mafia'

The bill has gone through many rounds of votes as the House of Lords tried to ensure residents would not have to pay for required safety works.

It aims to toughen safety rules after 72 died in the 2017 Grenfell tower fire, in west London.

The new legislation modifies a previous law to clarify that building owners must manage and reduce the risk of fire in their properties.

The government was under pressure to get it passed before the end of the parliamentary session on Thursday.

Thousands of leaseholders are currently facing large bills to pay for safety measures, including fire breaks, new balconies, safer doors and sprinkler systems.

Ministers suffered several House of Lords defeats in attempting to pass the legislation as the issue of who should pay for additional safety works became a sticking point.

Financial ruin

Earlier this year, the government announced a new £3.5bn support package, with ministers insisting no leaseholders in high-rise blocks in England will face charges for the removal of unsafe cladding.

But critics of the government's response have argued this will not cover all of the costs faced by leaseholders, which they said have emerged through no fault of their own.

The campaigning group End Our Cladding Scandal said the legislation had passed unchanged "much to the horror of hundreds of thousands of innocent people across the country whose lives are being ruined by the buildings safety crisis".

It said the government had "fought hard" against changes that would have saved leaseholders from "widespread bankruptcy and financial ruin caused by bad regulations, corporate malfeasance and shoddy building work".

"This Bill pulls the rug out from under a generation of homeowners" it added whose lives were still at risk from unsafe buildings.

The group has vowed to continue opposing the reforms, tweeting "We have the right to be angry. But the fight isn't over yet".

Stephen Squires, a leaseholder who lives in a tower block in Manchester bearing dangerous cladding, said ministers' reluctance to compromise was "hugely disappointing and really makes us feel like the government do not grasp the severity of the situation we all find ourselves through no fault of our own".

He added: "Our service charge account is running out of money whilst the freeholder delays things. Eventually we could end up with having the lifts switched off or the electric being cut off to a 20-storey building, which would make it uninhabitable".

Housing minister Chris Pincher said the bill "is an important first step in our legislative programme delivering these recommendations and I cannot stress enough... the vital importance of this legislation and the ramifications if it fails as a result of outstanding remediation amendments."

Let's block ads! (Why?)

April 29, 2021 at 11:31PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56924131