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Labour writes to opposition MPs to back amendment protecting leaseholders from fire safety costs
The Labour Party has written to 77 Conservative MPs whose constituents are facing large fire safety bills, urging them to back an amendment to protect leaseholders from paying.
MPs will vote today on the Fire Safety Bill, which includes an amendment preventing leaseholders from having to pay for fire safety work on their building after peers voted to send the debate back to the House of Commons for a second time.
Labour has now written to 77 Conservative MPs who collectively represent 100,000 constituents living in flats with dangerous cladding.
When the Fire Safety Bill was in the House of Commons, 38 Conservative MPs signed an amendment to protect leaseholders from costs.
Labour said Conservative ministers have promised at least 17 times in parliament that leaseholders would not be forced to pay to fix fire safety problems that were not their fault.
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In February, the government announced a package of measures including £3.5bn for cladding removal for buildings taller than 18m, and said that leaseholders in shorter blocks could access a “low-interest” loan scheme capped at £50 a month.
Labour said that these measures would leave leaseholders “burdened with costs for years to come”.
Thangam Debbonaire, shadow housing secretary, said: “Conservative ministers promised that residents would not be burdened with these costs, at least 17 times by my count. Yet the latest announcement heaps years of debt on to the victims of this scandal.
“Across the country, Conservatives’ constituents living in these flats will be rightly angry as their MPs are not speaking up for them. I’m calling on all MPs, whatever their political party, to speak up for their constituents and vote to protect leaseholders from these outrageous costs.”
Sarah Jones, shadow minister for policing and the fire service, said: “Safety should be the government’s top priority, but almost four years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in dangerous homes that they can’t sell.
“Residents are calling out for the government to do the right thing, protect leaseholders in law, and let the innocent residents move on with their lives.”
