The cladding crisis has caused serious concern and stress for countless people across the country, and in our own constituency, who have been engaging with me and my team on the personal challenges and fears they have had over the past couple of years.
We've taken, and are taking, important legislative steps to ensure this can never happen again, through our Fire Safety Act and our Building Safety Bill. However, the Housing Secretary has today set out our new plan, which will reset our approach to building safety, protect leaseholders and ensure developers and companies pay to fix the cladding crisis.
I've been raising this issue with Ministers in Government over the last couple of years, on behalf of affected constituents who have been extremely worried about the personal, financial impacts of this crisis. This has clearly been a complex issue to find solutions to, but I am relieved we have now reached a point of clarity moving forward with this new plan.
As it states on the Government's website, the link to which can be found below: "The Housing Secretary guaranteed today that no leaseholder living in their own flat will have to pay a penny to fix unsafe cladding. The old proposed loan scheme for leaseholders in medium-rise flats will be scrapped, with industry given two months to agree to a financial contributions scheme to fund the new plan, otherwise, if necessary, the government will impose a solution in law."
This new plan is split into 4 key parts:
- Further opening up Building Safety Fund to take dangerous cladding off high-rise buildings,
- A new team will pursue and expose companies at fault, ensuring they fix buildings they're responsible for, facing commercial consequences if they refuse
- Restoring common sense to building assessments
- New protections for leaseholders living in their own flats within the Building Safety Bill
Following today's announcement, the Housing Secretary has said:
"From today, we are bringing this scandal to an end – protecting leaseholders and making industry pay. We will scrap proposals for loans and long-term debt for leaseholders in medium-rise buildings and give a guarantee that no leaseholder living in their own flat will pay a penny to fix dangerous cladding.
"Working with members of both Houses, we will look to bring a raft of leaseholder protections into law through our Building Safety bill. And we will restore much needed common sense on building safety assessments, ending the practice of too many buildings being declared unsafe."
To read more on this latest positive news for leaseholders, please visit here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-sets-out-new-plan-to-prot…