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Leaseholders fear missing out on £200m cladding fund as bidding deadline approaches
Leaseholders living in blocks seeking government funding for the removal of Grenfell-style cladding have raised concerns over meeting the deadline for applications, while criticising the lengthy process being run by the government.
Inside Housing has spoken to leaseholders living in blocks across the UK clad in dangerous aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding who have said they do not believe they will meet the government’s end of the year deadline for applications, due to onerous conditions that need to be met before they can submit an application.
In May, the government announced a £200m fund that would be distributed to private tower blocks covered in ACM in a bid to speed up remediation work. The bidding for the money opened in mid-September, however a number of blocks have been having issues with the bidding process.
According to the latest government figures, not one of the ACM blocks in scope for government funding have successfully bid to get the full costs of the removal covered by the government, despite the bidding closing 43 days.
Of the 86 blocks in scope for the fund, only six have had their eligibility for funding confirmed and half of them have submitted applications for full cost support or support for early surveys.
A total of 67 are still preparing eligibility bids, while the government has had no contact at all with five building owners.
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As part of the application process buildings must cross off a number of tasks for the government, including carrying out a survey to ascertain the full costs of work and securing signed state aid forms from all of the leaseholders that live in a development.
One resident of a tower block in Yorkshire told Inside Housing that despite numerous efforts secure state aid forms all the block’s leaseholders, the building owner had only been able to secure less than 50%.
The issues on this block have been compounded by the management company that was handling the application now relinquishing its duties and handing over to a new manager.
The resident claimed that the there was “no way on earth” that their block would meet the deadline and said the government has “washed its hands of all things ACM”.
Speaking to Inside Housing last month, housing secretary Robert Jenrick said he had told ministers that state aid forms shouldn’t be a reason to hold up applications and that he had advised officials to take a permissible view if some leaseholders cannot contact all leaseholders.
However, Inside Housing has seen evidence of one leaseholder living in a block in east London being told by Lease, the government-funded leasehold advice service, that “if all the declaration forms are not completed and signed, the responsible entity will not be able to apply to the fund to cover the cost of replacing the unsafe cladding on your building”.
Residents have also raised the issue of carrying out the lengthy processes of Section 20 before surveys or remediation work can take place.
Ritu Saha, who lives in the Northpoint block in Bromley, said that before any survey work can start they may require a Section 20 procedure, which could take up to three months. A Section 20 process must be carried out when major works are carried out on a leasehold building, specifically when the cost of that work is higher than £250 a flat.
She said: “Over four months on, the cladding fund portal appears to be putting up even more barriers to the application process, with requests for expensive surveys and their results to be available prior to applying to the fund and suggestions for buildings to take independent legal advice prior to application.”
Residents at Paddington Walk block in central London, where leaseholders have already paid £3.5m of an estimated £10m cladding bill, say they have been left “in the dark” by their property manager over the process.
One Paddington Walk resident said: “Despite being forced to pay in excess of £4m due to legal threats of lease forfeiture, leaseholders are being kept in the dark about the government application process.
“We have no idea whether all state aid forms have been received or at what stage the application has been progressed. Our building manager has failed to communicate with leaseholders despite repeated promises to update leaseholders on the application, results of our Section 20 process, and final costs and timescales”.
A spokseperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government could not respond due to general election restrictions around purdah.
They said: “The detailed application guidance published in July 2019 stated that applications will remain open until the end of December 2019, but that where there are exceptional mitigating circumstances, MHCLG will accept applications after this date at its discretion.
“If applicants encounter difficulties with their application, then they should get in touch with MHCLG’s fund delivery partners.”
Update at 15:40 18/11/2019 This article was updated to include a comment from the MHCLG.
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