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Developers vow not to ask for recladding cash back from £200m government fund
A number of major developers and freeholders have reaffirmed their commitment to foot the bill for recladding costs and will not recoup money from the government’s £200m fund announced yesterday.
Barratt Homes, Taylor Wimpey, Legal & General (L&G) and Aberdeen Standard Investments have all confirmed to Inside Housing that they will stand by previous pledges to pay for recladding work on buildings clad in aluminium composite material (ACM) that they own or built.
Speaking in parliament earlier today, communities secretary James Brokenshire said that the firms, as well as Lendlease and Mace, had agreed to stick to their commitment.
But he attacked “too many” building owners for failing to take responsibility and “dragging their feet” on remediation work. A total of 166 privately owned building remain with ACM cladding nearly two years since the Grenfell Tower fire.
Barratt is currently working on recladding three buildings with combustible cladding, including the 95-home Citiscape block in Croydon, south London. The developer stepped in a year ago to fund the work at the block it built, but for which it is no longer responsible.
The Citiscape project was previously known about, but the location of Barratt’s two other sites with dangerous cladding remains unclear.
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A spokesperson told Inside Housing: “Those recladding projects and the work at Citiscape are well under way and we will continue to pay for them ourselves.”
L&G started work last month on recladding a nine-storey block, housing 334 residents, in Hounslow, west London. The work is expected to complete by the end of this year, Inside Housing understands.
An L&G spokesperson said: “L&G is still committed to paying for the cladding.”
Meanwhile, Taylor Wimpey is currently recladding its Glasgow Harbour development as part of a pot of £30m it has set aside for remediation work. Other Taylor Wimpey sites are the subject of recladding projects but a spokesperson declined to reveal their locations. Inside Housing understands that the house builder will not be asking for money back from the government to cover the costs of this work.
Aberdeen Standard Investments has four buildings with ACM cladding, with two already reclad and two in progress. The costs of recladding are understood to be less than £5m. A spokesperson confirmed that it will not be looking to recoup any costs from the government fund.
Mace said that remedial work at its Greenwich Square development started earlier this year and is “progressing well”. It expects to complete on work within the next 12 months. It is understood that a waking watch will remain in place at the building until the work is complete.
“We are pleased to see the government has committed to providing funding to address this issue more widely across the industry, and we hope it will encourage other developers to follow our lead,” a spokesperson said.
However, when asked directly by Inside Housing whether it would seek to recoup money from the government, it said it had no further comment at this stage.
For those freeholders who have yet to act, Mr Brokenshire said that the fund announced yesterday does not absolve them of “the failures that led to the ACM being wrongly put on buildings”.
He added: “As a condition of funding, we will stipulate that building owners must pursue warranty and insurance claims and any appropriate action against those responsible for putting unsafe cladding on the buildings, with moneys to be repaid to the government.”
Those applying for the fund must also agree to carry out the remediation work within a set period, Mr Brokenshire said. In a government release, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that the money would only be given if freeholders started work within three months.
The government will write to all possible fund applicants by the end of next week, he added.
Lendlease has yet to respond to a request for comment.
