The Government has once again mobilised MPs to defeat an amendment to prevent fire safety costs being passed on to leaseholders.
Despite a rebellion by a number of Conservative MPs, including former party leader Iain Duncan Smith, housing minister Christopher Pincher said the amendment was unworkable and was inappropriate at it would lead to a delay in work.
But there is growing concern from MPs, residents groups and from across the construction industry that the Government’s stance means it is struggling to pass its Fire Safety Bill due to support in the House of Lords for the amendment.
The government is now under pressure to get the bill passed before the end of the parliamentary session tomorrow.
If the bill fails to secure support of both MPs and peers before then, it will be dropped. The Government can still decide to carry it forward to the next session.
The issue of who should pay for fire safety work has become a sticking point, with the House of Commons repeatedly voting to reject Lords amendments on the subject.
It also comes as the National Housing Federation has released a survey into the impact of the Treasury’s funding package in more detail, which shows:
- The Treasury has made no additional money available for people on the lowest incomes in society, those living in social housing. Twelve of the biggest not-for-profit housing associations have already set aside £2.9bn – largely from social housing rents - to make their buildings safe and have had to cut plans for thousands of new social homes.
- Leaseholders in medium and low-rise buildings will have to cover all the costs of cladding removal themselves, with support from government backed loans. Today’s poll reveals this loan scheme is unpopular with Conservative MPs – only 28% are in favour.
- Homeowners in buildings of all heights still have to pay for fire safety works beyond removing and replacing cladding.[ii] Two-thirds of Conservative MPs say leaseholders should not pay any building safety costs.
- The government introduced a levy on developers and a tax on their future high-rise developments, however they are still not responsible for any of the costs of the current crisis. 95% of MPs polled said that developers who built these homes should be responsible for the costs of making buildings safe.
The Treasury’s package includes £3.5bn additional funding for leaseholders to remove dangerous cladding from high-rise buildings. However this is a fraction of the funding needed to make all buildings safe. For comparison, not-for-profit social landlords estimate they will have to spend in excess of £10bn to make all their buildings safe over the next decade.
The NHF is urgently calling on the government to fund the upfront costs of all fire safety works on behalf of social housing providers and leaseholders and claim this money back from those responsible such as private developers and manufacturers, once works are completed.
Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the NHF, said the poll shows that an overwhelming majority of MPs want the Treasury to pay for all the upfront costs of making buildings safe, despite the outcome of this week’s vote.
“Whilst it’s positive the Treasury has made more funding available; it doesn’t go far enough and leaves people starting out on the housing ladder, those on the lowest incomes in society and charities picking up most of the costs,” she continued.
“These defects are the result of a failure of regulation and poor practice from manufacturing and construction firms. Yet, the absence of funding for social landlords has essentially resulted in a stealth tax on housing associations and their residents which far exceeds any action against those responsible.
“The government is the only body with the power and resources to resolve this crisis. The only solution is for them to cover all the costs upfront and then claim these back from those responsible.”
In the meantime, the Government says residents and building owners are set to benefit from a new code of practice for professionals assessing buildings’ external walls and cladding systems.
As part of the reform of the building sector, the government has commissioned the British Standards Institution (BSI) to draft a new code of practice for assessors when examining external walls and cladding.
This will ensure external wall assessments are carried out to a high and consistent standard, giving building owners clarity on the fire risk of the construction of external walls.
The code of practice will help professionals provide consistent, risk-based and proportionate advice on whether remediation of the external walls is necessary.
Building Safety Minister Lord Greenhalgh said: “As part of the biggest improvements to building safety standards in 40 years, we are taking firm action to ensure homes and buildings are safer.
“This includes investing over £5 billion to help protect hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes.
“I welcome the launch of this consultation on a new code of practice, commissioned by government, which will ensure greater clarity and consistency for those completing assessments of external walls and a clear steer on where remediation is, or is not, required.”
