NEWS Private cladding funding confirmed by government
THE GOVERNMENT will ‘fully fund’ the replacement of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding on privately owned high rise buildings, amid a range of other cladding developments. The Ministry for Housing,
Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) confirmed that £200m will be made available to ‘remove and replace’ ACM cladding from around 170 privately owned high rise buildings across the country, and ‘fully fund’ the process ‘where building owners have failed to do so’. It also said the funding pledge would ‘eliminat[e] excuses used by some building owners’, thereby ‘protecting leaseholders from the costs’. The move has been made
after a series of private building owners ‘failed to take action and tried to offload costs onto leaseholders’, and the government ‘appreciates’ the work of Grenfell United and UK Cladding Action Group campaigners, who have ‘prominently’ outlined the challenges of forcing private building owners to fund cladding replacement. Private developers and
freeholders ‘have been too slow to act’, with leaseholders ‘threatened with significant, often unaffordable, costs resulting in delays’. Its latest figures showed that 166 privately owned buildings are yet to start remedial works, compared to 23 in social housing, and building owners will have three months to access the money, with the government to ‘look carefully at those who fail to remediate and consider what further action can be taken’. MHCLG stated that a condition of the funding will require building owners to ‘take reasonable steps to recover the costs from those responsible for the presence of the unsafe cladding’, while it pointed out that of the 176 privately owned high rise buildings identified as having ACM cladding, only ten have completed work.
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Prime Minister Theresa May said: ‘It is of paramount importance that everybody is able to feel and be safe in their homes. That’s why we asked building owners in the private sector to take action and make sure appropriate safety measures were in place. And we’ve seen a number of private building owners doing the right thing and taking responsibility, but unfortunately too many are continuing to pass on the costs of removal and replacement to leaseholders. ‘Today I can confirm we will now be fully funding the replacement of cladding on high-rise private residential buildings so residents can feel confident they are secure in their homes.’ Communities Secretary
James Brokenshire said: ‘Although temporary measures are in place to ensure people living in these buildings are safe, too many owners are treating this as a permanent fix. Others are trying to pass on the costs to residents by threatening them with bills running to thousands of pounds. ‘While some building owners
have been swift to act, and I thank them for doing the right thing, I am now calling time on the delay tactics of others. If these reckless building owners won’t act, the government will.’ Jonathan O’Neill, managing director of the Fire Protection
JUNE 2019
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Association (FPA), commented: ‘About time! We welcome this long overdue announcement from MHCLG. At least this funding will give affected individuals some certainty about the safety and value of their homes. Following the success of the Inside Housing #EndOurCladdingScandal campaign, we will continue to call for the use of sprinklers, third party certification and a ban on single staircases as the sole means of escape in tall buildings.’
FPA given BS 8414 contract
In other cladding news, the FPA has been chosen by the government to conduct the next round of cladding façade tests. Earlier this year, the FPA was officially
accredited by UKAS to carry out BS 8414 testing on the ‘effectiveness of external cladding on buildings’. It stated that it was ‘open for business’ in regard to testing cladding systems to the BS 8414 standard, commenting that in response to Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Final Report, cladding testing ‘has now become of paramount importance’, with the UK currently only having ‘few facilities’ in which to conduct the BS 8414 tests. It continued that, ‘even when a slot is available, it can take months to receive results’,
which contain the ‘vital evidence Story continues on page eight
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