You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Social housing leaseholders eligible for new £1bn Building Safety Fund
The government will open registrations for a new £1bn fund to remove dangerous non-aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding from high-rise buildings next week, with leaseholders living in social housing blocks eligible for support.
Today housing secretary Robert Jenrick published a prospectus with details of who can apply for the £1bn fund announced in the chancellor’s March Budget. The government will open up the fund to bids on 1 June, and the deadline for all bids is 31 July.
The government said the fund will meet the costs of the removal of unsafe cladding systems in the social and private sectors for buildings taller than 18m that do not comply with building regulations.
For social sector blocks, the government will meet landlords’ costs only for cladding removal that would otherwise be borne by leaseholders. It will also cover costs where a provider’s financial viability is threatened by the cost of remediation.
To receive funding through the second route, a local authority would have to make a declaration from its chief finance officer, while a housing association would be required to submit a business case setting out their financial position and inform the regulator.
Alternatively, social housing providers can submit a claim for the sum that would otherwise have been included in an increased service charge to leaseholders, including shared owners.
READ MORE
When the fund was first announced in March it appeared as though social housing providers would only be able to access it if their viability was threatened, suggesting the government has changed its mind in the past two months.
It comes after a number of warnings from social housing sector figures that costs of remediation could be pushed onto leaseholders and shared owners in the future.
The new advice states that buildings on which remediation work has begun or those on which remediation work has been committed will be barred from accessing funds.
Building owners and managers will have to provide evidence that they have explored every opportunity to fund remediation from sources other than private residential leaseholders and the government, before being deemed eligible to receive the money.
The fund will cover the costs directly related to the removal of unsafe non-ACM cladding only, which includes labour and construction costs, managing agent fees and the costs of technical inspections. It will not cover the costs of structural works, other fire safety works or interim fire safety measures such as waking watches.
Building owners will need to register their interest between 1 June (next Monday) and 31 July in order to be eligible to make an application.
The funding will then be allocated on a “first come, first served” basis, and the pot will close once applications up to £3.5bn have been reached.
Last week Neil O’Connor, the lead civil servant for the Building Safety Programme, said that the total cost of remediation was estimated between £3bn and £3.5bn but described these as “very rough numbers”.
Funding will not be made available for buildings below 18m, albeit with a new 30cm ‘tolerance’ introduced to cover buildings very close to the line.
Cladding systems with panels with a fire rating of Euroclass C or worse will be eligible, while panels with a rating of Euroclass B will be eligible if they are part of a system which include combustible insulation and has not passed a large-scale test.
The fund will be managed in London by the Greater London Authority and in the rest of England by Homes England.
Last year the government opened a £200m fund to remove Grenfell-style ACM cladding from private sector blocks where cladding removal work had stalled. However, this fund has been beset with issues, and only a handful of blocks have so far been successful in accessing funds.
Mr Jenrick said: “I will not accept any excuses from building owners who have yet to take action and those responsible should register for the fund so that they can start the remediation process immediately.”
However, there was criticism from campaign groups about the scope and size of the fund.
Speaking on behalf of leaseholder groups, representing tens of thousands of affected residents across the UK, Ritu Saha said: “While we welcome the release of money for the building safety programme, we have serious concerns that this fund lacks the size and scope to truly solve the crisis we face and prevent a repeat of Grenfell. We will not accept any leaseholders being left behind and will continue to fight until all homes are safe.”
Update at 09.45am on 27.5.2020:
This story was updated with further detail about the fund
