Government Announces £200m Allocated to Replace Dangerous Cladding
The government has pledged £200m to cover the cost of replacing dangerous aluminium composite (ACM) cladding on 170 privately-owned high-rise buildings with safer alternatives, but this could potentially apply to all cladding materials that don’t meet the required EU classification, following guidance issued by UKCAG.
James Brokenshire, the Housing Secretary, had previously announced that the cost of this remediation work should be covered by building owners. However, in order to speed up this essential remedial work on buildings which still affect thousands of residents, the government will now fund this process for privately owned properties. The government has already committed to funding replacement cladding in the social sector.
It has been recognised that although a number of private building owners have been taking responsibility for the removal of dangerous cladding, there have, unfortunately, been too many building owners who are trying to pass on the remedial costs on to their leaseholders.
It has been reported that residents of these buildings have been put under a huge amount of pressure and anxiety over the last 23 months, and this funding is intended to alleviate this stress that leaseholders have been under.
Owners of the private buildings concerned will have three months to claim this funding – a condition being that they take “reasonable steps” to recover the costs from those responsible for the original use of the cladding.
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Fire specialists at the S2 Partnership undertake risk assessments and audits on behalf of property owners and managers to ensure that tenants are operating to good standards of fire safety and are not posing a fire risk to the rest of the building or its occupants.
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