Support grows for calls to include landlords in cladding fund

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More pressure is being put on the government to rethink its decision to exclude buy-to-let landlords from receiving cladding support.

Communities Secretary Michael Gove revealed that landlords would not be included in the cladding remediation fund initiative; instead, funding will be targeted initially at owner-occupiers and that ‘negotiations…will explore whether this support should extend to other leaseholders such as landlords’.

No logical basis

The National Residential Landlords Association has already called for him not to ignore landlords, which Propertymark has now echoed. Timothy Douglas, policy and campaigns manager, says there is no logical basis on which they should be excluded. “Buy-to-let landlords are no more to blame and deserve justice just as much as any other leaseholder to ensure they are not penalised for simply being landlords,” says Douglas. “It’s vital that private rented sector landlords are included in the support.”

Yesterday, Michael Gove met developers to discuss how to pay for works to rectify cladding and fire safety issues; they have told the government they must not be the only ones to pay the potential £4bn cost of fixing fire safety problems in tower blocks. A Department for Levelling Up Housing & Communities spokesperson says: “The roundtable was attended by senior executives from the country’s biggest developers, and these representatives agreed leaseholders should not pay. We continue to engage with them to ensure they deliver a fully funded action plan by early March.”

Unsafe buildings

Nearly five years after the Grenfell Tower fire, 40% of buildings in England with the same type of cladding have not been made safe, new government figures show. In all, 481 buildings have been identified with Grenfell-style ACM cladding and are unlikely to meet building regulations.

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