The government has announced a £30 million fund to help end the scandal of
excessive waking watch costs, as part of a further move to support thousands of
residents in high-rise buildings.
The new Waking Watch Relief Fund will pay for the installation of fire alarm
systems in high-rise buildings with cladding, removing or reducing the need for
costly interim safety measures such as ‘waking watch’.
The National Fire Chiefs Council have been clear in recent guidance that
building owners should move to install common fire alarm systems as quickly as
possible to reduce or remove dependence on waking watches.
The steps will help worried leaseholders who may have faced high costs for
interim safety measures by providing financial support and delivering a better,
long term fire safety system in their buildings.
Some buildings have already installed these systems due to the significant
savings this offers, with leaseholders in those buildings, who on average were
paying £137 per month for a waking watch, expected to collectively save over £3
million per month.
The same research shows the wide range in costs faced by leaseholders and
evidence of disproportionate charges – the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is
writing to Trading Standards asking them to use their powers to investigate.
The fund will open in January, but will also provide immediate, emergency
support to Wicker Riverside Apartments in Sheffield to ensure that the 35
recently evacuated families should be able to return to their homes before
Christmas.
A 6-month extension to the deadline for building owners to complete their
applications to the £1 billion Building
Safety Fund has also been announced - with a new deadline for submissions
of 30 June 2021.
This means hundreds more buildings will be remediated and thousands of
leasehold residents will be protected from costs. Progress is being made on
current applications with many more expected to be agreed before Christmas.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “I’ve heard first-hand from
leaseholders the misery that rip-off waking watch costs have been bringing to
residents of high-rise buildings with cladding.
“We have continued to prioritise the removal of unsafe ACM
cladding throughout the pandemic and expect around 95% of remediation work will
have been completed or be underway by the end of this year.”
This builds on steps the government has already made to support leaseholders
including securing an agreement that owners of flats in buildings
without cladding do not need an EWS1 form to sell or re-mortgage their
property - benefitting nearly 450,000 homeowners.
These measures are part of the government’s commitment to improve the safety
of buildings across the country which will be enshrined in law through the
Building Safety Bill in 2021.
The government is clear the building industry must contribute towards the
costs of making these homes safe once more, to set right decades of unsafe practices.
Work continues at pace to develop further financial solutions to protect
leaseholders with details to be announced in the new year.
