Gove making "right noises" on cladding but more action needed, says Bristol campaigner
Leaseholder Steph Pike is facing a bill in excess of £70,000 to make her apartment block safe
A member of the Bristol Cladding Action Group says the government is beginning to talk the talk on the cladding crisis, but it must walk the walk, as the Housing Minister says developers must cover the costs of fixing defective buildings.
Michael Gove has spoken in Parliament to say he is giving firms until March to agree a £4 billion plan to protect leaseholders, who currently face bills of tens of thousands of pounds to fix their fire defective buildings.
To date residents in apartment blocks between 11 and 18 metres tall have been ineligible for government support to remove unsafe cladding, but Mr Gove says he will take all steps necessary to make developers pay.
Possible measures include a tax on firms that don't agree to a plan, but he is not introducing any legal measures at the moment.
It all comes in the wake of 2017's devastating Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people and was largely caused by flammable cladding encasing the building.
Steph Pike lives in Bristol and has been an active campaigner on the issue.
"Obviously any government movement on this issue is a positive step, it's welcome and it does provide some additional money for those in buildings between 11 and 18m, but that money is only for the removal of cladding," she said.
"It doesn't cover any non-cladding fire safety defects, so things like cavity barriers, fire breaks, fire doors, interim measures so waking watch costs, increasing insurance premiums, those interim measures cost leaseholders thousands of pounds a month on their own.
"So it's a partial solution but not a complete solution."
Just a warning shot
Steph agrees with a suggestion that today's announcement is "just a warning shot" at developers and does not force them to act.
"There's no new law that's coming in to make developers pay," she said.
"It's asking them again, nicely, to do the right thing and that's been tried in the past and it hasn't worked.
"There have been noises but if developers don't do the right thing then there will supposedly be something put into law, but whether that will happen I'm not sure."
She says she has little faith that anything will change, at least not in the near future.
"Shouldn't" isn't the same as "won't"
Since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017 the government has repeatedly said leaseholders should not have to pay to fix problems that were not of their own making, but as Steph points out, politicians have repeatedly failed back up their words with actions, by ensuring leaseholders do not cover the costs through legislation.
Again today Mr Gove said no leaseholder should face costs, but still no measures are being introduced to ensure that.
"'Shouldn't' isn't the same as 'won't' have to pay and until there's legal protection for leaseholders, to say that no costs related to fire safety defects will be passed to them, I don't think there's a viable solution to this crisis," she said.
"It's really frustrating that everything to do with the building safety crisis seems to take years and years and years.
"To be honest I don't expect any movement on anything for at least another year, I just can't see anything happening, but I hope I'm wrong."