The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) have called for evidence to be published on all leaseholder buildings above 11 metres or 5 storeys with relevant defects, such as dangerous external cladding and/or insulation boards made of combustible material. The evidence will be used to help protect leaseholders in buildings from the impact of building safety defects.
Further concerns have been expressed over building safety defects, similar to the ones that caused the Grenfell disaster.
Dangerous cladding in many social houses is feared to still remain. This cladding was exposed as severely dangerous during the Grenfell Tower fire which caused a kitchen fire to spread throughout the building, killing 72 people.
Following an inquiry, the external cladding, which was made of aluminium composite material (ACM) was discovered to be the main facilitator to the fires spread due to its high levels of combustibility, as well as insulation boards also made of combustible material.
This same cladding has been used in many other buildings, raising concerns a repeat of the Grenfell disaster could happen. Greg Clark, the DLUHC Secretary, said:
“We are committed to helping every leaseholder suffering at the hands of building safety issues, regardless of the kind of building they find themselves in.
It’s vital we gather as much information as possible about the scale and nature of the problems leaseholders are facing.
I urge anyone in a leaseholder-owned building above 11 metres or five storeys to come forward and share their experiences so that we can help end these issues once and for all.”
A report from the DLUHC found that fixing unsafe cladding could cost up to £5.3 billion, however, the plans to fix the cladding issues were scuppered earlier this month when the Home Builder Federation (HBF) refused to sign contracts to remediate unsafe cladding due to “unrealistic” government expectations.
To submit new evidence on these issues you can provide them here.
