What does Inside Housing’s survey of leaseholders impacted by the cladding crisis show?

A total of 68.3% respondents say their blocks require repairs to defective fire breaks; 59.3% require the removal of combustible balconies; 53.6% require repairs to internal compartmentation; 42.3% require alarms or sprinklers; and 30.6% require replacement fire doors.

A range of other issues were also identified, from unprotected steel work to repairs to firefighters’ lifts.

How much are they being asked to pay?

The survey blew away a previous government estimate that the average cost for remediation would be £9,000 per leaseholder. According to our survey only 11.6% are in the £0 to £10,000 bracket.

The most common response (28.7%) fell in the £30,000 to £50,000 range. In total, 62.5% of respondents face a total bill of above £30,000 to pay for this and alarmingly 15.4% say they face a bill of more than £100,000.

These costs are imminent for many, with 41.7% saying they have already been served with a Section 20 notice by their freeholder. In perhaps the most troubling figure in the survey, 17.2% say they have already begun exploring bankruptcy proceedings.

In a free text box included in the survey, for respondents to describe the impact paying these bills would have on their lives, dozens listed bankruptcy or the loss of their home.

“It would wipe out my life savings and delay retirement indefinitely,” one respondent said. “It would also make me fearful of reaching old age with insufficient funds for even a basic standard of living. This after working, saving and living within my means all my life.”

What about the cost of interim measures?

Interim costs – bills that fall on leaseholders’ mats before an inch of cladding has been removed – were also shown to be significant. The primary two were bills for waking watches (the 24-hour patrols in place to alert residents to a fire) and increased insurance premiums.

The most common figure for each was between £100 and £250 per month, but 13% of those paying for a waking watch said the cost was more than £500 a month and 20.8% of those paying boosted insurance said it came to more than £500.

Asked how they were coping with these repayments, 72.1% said they had cut down on other spending, while 65.4% have spent personal savings to cover these costs, 20.9% have borrowed from friends or family, 12.4% have taken on extra hours at work, 7.1% have taken a second job, and 5.6% have taken out a private loan.

Has this affected their political views?

The answer to this appears to be a resounding ‘yes’. The leaseholders responding had a fairly even mix of political affiliation: 38% of respondents voted Conservative at the last election in 2019, while 39.8% voted Labour, 12.7% voted Liberal Democrat and the remainder voted for other parties.

Of all respondents, 82.7% said the cladding crisis will influence how they vote next time. Interestingly, this was roughly consistent across both political parties, with 79.3% of Conservative voters saying it would have an impact and 85.6% of Labour voters saying so.

Asked what they thought of the government’s potential plan to force leaseholders to repay loans taken by leaseholders, there was widespread disgust.

A free text response box on the loans plan contained responses such as “disgusting”, “unacceptable”, “unfair” and “outrageous”.

“Terrible! This is a national scandal,” one leaseholder wrote. “The government should fund repairs in the short term to save people’s anxiety and potential bankruptcy and homelessness and in parallel seek reparations from those that are at fault.”

“It’s infuriating because it feels like such an injustice,” said another. “This is no fault of leaseholders and in fact by paying we are only paying to upgrade a freeholder’s asset. A loan would leave me completely depressed.”