Tinderbox Britain: Four years after the Grenfell Tower fire, the cladding crisis rages on newstatesman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newstatesman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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“It is absolutely important that that is done, particularly the aluminium composite material cladding, but also the other forms of cladding as well.
“We know that there are a multitude of defects in buildings that can cause fire problems: faulty balconies; faulty fire doors; missing fire breaks; faulty installations and so on, all of which make buildings unsafe.
“We could get a situation where the Government pay for the cladding to come off, but it still leaves the buildings unsafe, and leaseholders cannot afford the rest of the costs.”
Mr Betts said he had met leaseholders “worried sick that they are living in buildings that are unsafe, but that they do not have the financial ability to pay for the defects to be dealt with”.
Scrap permitted development rights, council chiefs say
Office blocks that are left empty following the coronavirus pandemic risk being turned into potentially substandard housing because of permitted development rights (PDRs), local authority leaders say.
PDRs allow developers to convert buildings into homes without planning permission. Local authority leaders argue that these rights undermine the ability of councils to ensure there is a mix of housing in their areas and that it is of a high quality.
The Government has pushed for the expansion of PDRs, saying that they will help high streets ‘bounce back from the pandemic’ and deliver much-needed homes.
Leaseholders facing big bills for remediation include many who themselves work in construction, but even those in the know have become powerless victims.
Ian Weinfass investigates
Peter Vince had expected the consultancy he founded in 2011 would be growing strongly by now. Like everyone, he had not factored in a global pandemic, but the virus is not the only reason for a cashflow setback he thinks might take four years to clear.
In March 2020, his modest company was hit with a £140,000 bill to fix the building where one of his offices is based, a financial blow that could prove worse than the revenue impact of COVID-19.
From cashflow to personal debt: how the building-safety crisis hit the industry s own constructionnews.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from constructionnews.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.