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Pincher grilled over external wall system crisis in new builds
Housing minister Christopher Pincher was today grilled by opposition MPs over revelations that leaseholders in new build blocks of flats are facing huge safety bills despite previously being assured their buildings were fine.
Inside Housing reported on Friday that people who bought flats for hundreds of thousands of pounds on the back of external wall system (EWS1) forms declaring their building’s cladding to be safe were later told that materials had to be removed.
Affected homeowners have therefore seen their flats become worthless while also facing massive costs for remediation and waking watches.
Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North, raised the issue during questions to ministers from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in the House of Commons today, leading to a test exchange.
“For many first-time buyers, especially in cities, the options are mainly new build and leasehold properties, but they are of course many of them walking into a new nightmare of costs,” she said.
“Inside Housing are today reporting on purchasers buying properties as safe, only to discover almost immediately that the ratings are changing leaving them with huge bills for waking watch and unsellable properties.
“Does the minister know how many first-time buyers are affected by this, and why is it that the only truly blameless party – the purchaser – is the one who is still left carrying the can and the risk?”
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In response, Mr Pincher said “there are a suite of options for first-time buyers”, pointing to the Help to Buy scheme, shared ownership and the 5% deposit mortgage guarantee scheme announced today.
“We are determined to ensure that first-time buyers are able to achieve their dream and get on to the property ladder,” he added.
His answer attracted the ire of shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire, who branded the remarks “quite staggering”.
She added: “I don’t know if the minister was listening to my honourable friend the member for Westminster North.
“He’s avoided answering her, he previously avoided answering the member for Weaver Vale [Mike Amesbury], so I’m going to give him another go.
“Will the minister please tell us what on Earth is the justification for allowing new buildings to be built with dangerous cladding and other fire safety defects, what he is going to do to ensure that the number of first-time buyers moving into homes with dangerous cladding is zero?”
Mr Pincher hit back by saying Ms Debbonaire “has got no policies of her own”.
He added: “We are determined to make sure through the building safety regime that we will be introducing that we have a world-class building safety programme.
“We’ve consulted on the challenge faced by combustible products – it’s a very complicated one – and we’ll be bringing forward our announcements on those in due course.
“But make no mistake, we’re determined to support buyers, we’re determined to get more people on to the property ladder, we’re determined to build better-quality homes. Things that the Labour Party talk about, we are doing.”
The controversial EWS1 process was launched by the industry in 2019 in an attempt to work through the nationwide cladding crisis resulting from the Grenfell Tower fire.
It sees a qualified professional inspect the building’s external wall and sign a form indicating whether it includes flammable materials and requires remedial work.
Most banks and mortgage providers are refusing to lend on flats in blocks without an EWS1 form declaring their cladding safe.
The government has now earmarked £5.1bn to deal with the crisis, with the funding mainly focused on grants to remove dangerous cladding from high rises.
But leaseholders in buildings shorter than 18m are only being offered loans to help with huge remediation costs, with details on that scheme still yet to be announced.
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