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Welsh government to fund fire safety surveys on buildings over 11 metres
The Welsh government has announced today that it will fund fire safety surveys on buildings over 11 metres tall.
The funding will come via phase one of the Welsh Building Safety Fund, which buildings above 11 metres will be eligible to apply for with priority given to buildings over 18 metres tall.
The surveys will go beyond cladding issues and will also include assessing internal issues such as ineffective compartmentation.
Following the survey those responsible for the building will create a ‘Fire Safety Building Passport’ that will set out what defects have been identified, what remedial action is required and when fire safety measures need to be implemented.
Widespread building safety defects have been discovered in blocks of flats across the UK in the four years since the Grenfell Tower fire.
Hundreds of leaseholders across the UK have discovered that they are living in dangerous buildings, while thousands more have found themselves unable to sell their home as mortgage lenders require extra assurances that their building is safe.
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Julie James, the minister responsible for housing in Wales, said: “What we do not yet know is exactly how many buildings are affected and to what extent.
“It is critically important that we are able to understand the true scale of the problem in order to properly address it.
“Every building is different and the fire safety surveys will identify what measures and actions are required to make a multi-residential building as safe as it can be and protect lives and property in the event of a fire.”
Like the Westminster government, the Welsh government has ensured that leaseholders living in buildings with the same aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding as Grenfell have not borne the cost of this work.
However, the Welsh government has not yet committed to ensuring that leaseholders will not have to pay for other building safety defects.
The UK government is covering the cost of replacing other forms of dangerous cladding on buildings over 18 metres tall through £4.5bn in funding and has plans to introduce a loan scheme for buildings below 18 metres with cladding issues.
Ms James said in a written statement today that the government is “developing a remediation fund which will form the next phase of our programme of support”, the details of which will be released in the autumn.
She said that developers “still have a clear role to play in contributing to addressing safety defects where they exist in order to protect leaseholders from costs”.
Phase one of the Building Safety Fund will be open for applications from responsible persons, building owners or management companies this autumn, the government said.
Ms James has also called on the UK government to provide clarity over whether further consequential funding will come to Wales.
It comes five months after Ms James first called for clarity following the announcement from the UK government of an extra £3.5bn in grant to remedy fire safety defects within high rises in England.
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