Wave of Conservative MPs back amendment to protect leaseholders from cladding costs

Mr McPartland has urged leaseholders to write to their local MPs to lobby them to support the bill and is hoping to secure backing from at least 40 Conservative MPs.

Speaking to Inside Housing, he said: “It is fantastic so many members of parliament are adding their names to the amendment in my name and Royston Smith MP. We are very clear that leaseholders should not have to pay historic fire safety costs.

“It is not fair and the government has to step in and help provide a safety net, so they are protected. Email your MP today and ask them to sign the amendment and join the campaign so leaseholders do not have to pay.”

The government has said that an amendment through the Fire Safety Bill is the wrong mechanism for changes to historic costs and that it is the building safety bill that will deal with this issue.

It added: “Our priority is to remove unsafe materials as quickly as possible, which is progressing well – backed by £1.6bn of funding.

“We are considering options to fund future remediation, working with stakeholders, including leaseholders, and the finance industry, and we will set out further details in due course.”

The McPartland–Smith amendment comes as tens of thousands of leaseholders across the country face extortionate bills to fix fire safety issues in their blocks that were often built years before they bought their properties.

There are fears that the new Fire Safety Bill could bring in changes which will require additional remedial works on blocks and that the cost for this work will inevitably be pushed on to leaseholders.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the government has consistently said the costs of cladding and other fire safety work should not be passed on to leaseholders. However, in October, building safety minister Lord Greenhalgh indicated that leaseholders could not be protected from all costs and would look to make the costs affordable to leaseholders.

Currently the government is looking at a number of ways to help protect leaseholders from extortionate bills. Inside Housing understands that one mechanism being considered is long-term loans in which leaseholders will have to pay over decade-long periods. This idea has previously been rejected by leaseholders.

The McPartland–Smith amendment is one of a number of amendments put before the House of Commons and Lords in recent months aimed at protecting leaseholders from bearing the cost of post-Grenfell fire safety work. Last year, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Pinnock put forward an amendment to the Fire Safety Bill which was voted on and received a majority in the House of Lords. Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper has also tabled a similar amendment in the House of Commons.

This week the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Leasehold and Commonhold Reform wrote to the government calling on it to provide more financial support for leaseholders currently caught up in the cladding scandal and facing huge remediation costs.

The letter said there are currently an estimated 1.5 million people living in unmortgageable flats due to cladding and fire safety issues and that the total cost of remediating the blocks these people live in is £15bn.