The pain on Twitter today after we failed to stop the Fire Safety Bill despite epic parliamentary wrangling …
By Lucy Brown-Cortes
LKP has released a draft version of an ongoing report into the economic impact of the fire safety crisis.
The report looks at negative equity and measures the potential financial burden on leaseholders.
The Essential Information Group provided LKP with auction details for a random sample of 110 impacted buildings in Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool.
Liam Spender is a Trustee of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. Personally affected by the cladding scandal, Liam is a Solicitor-Advocate and Senior Associate at Velitor Law practising commercial litigation and arbitration in the City of London. Views in this article are personal and do not constitute legal advice.
Parliament last night broke the four month long deadlock over the Fire Safety Bill. The Bill cleared the Lords by a vote of 153-242, a majority of 89.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has urged the Government to re-commit to the principle that leaseholders should not have to pay for the removal of unsafe cladding from their homes and calls on the Government to establish a Comprehensive Building Safety Fund that addresses the true scale of fire safety issues. Finance for the fund should be provided by Government and the building industry.
In a report published today, the Committee finds that existing arrangements for remediation of cladding that base funding support on building height and materials should be changed so that financial support is targeted where residents’ safety is most at risk.
No new insights from housing minister Chris Pincher beyond a concern – previously expressed by Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick – that taxpayers mustn’t have limitless liability for leaseholders’ fire safety costs such as an occasional smoke alarm. A trivial matter, given the free-pass government is proposing to give to developers, warranty providers and offshore punters in residential freeholds (who won’t pay anything at all to make ‘their’ buildings safe)
Plenty of precedents even in the last few weeks of where government has had to intervene to right obvious injustices such as the cladding and build safety disaster facing thousands of mainly young families
By Liam Spender
Liam Spender is a Trustee of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership.
