Ipswich cladding campaigners hopeful of more help
New government means the sixth housing secretary in five years now looking into building safety
Last updated 8th Sep 2022
Suffolk housing safety campaigners are hoping that the arrival of the new Prime Minister and her team could be positive for them.
Ipswich Cladiators is one of the groups set-up to fight for the rights of people in buildings which have been ruled to be unsafe because of cladding and other fire safety measures in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Alex Dickin's the organisation's founder, he says it's disappointing that they're having to go back to square one again with the SIXTH government minister responsible for the sector in the last five years, but he's hoping there's been a proper handover from Michael Gove to his successor Simon Clarke.
Alex tells us he's hoping for some stability, "if this new housing secretary could be in post for longer than a year then we could see some good progress," but he has concerns too about what the swapping and changing at the top means, "They could look at Michael Gove's progress and completely change course and we could be back at the starting point where we are all facing life changing bills and the possibility of bankruptcy. Every time that there's a change of leadership it's always possible that we could go backwards rather than forwards."
Some landlords have been told they won't have to stump-up the cash for the improvements, but that doesn't cover everyone - especially those with multiple properties and that's something Alex wants addressing, "for me it really doesn't matter what type of leaseholder or how many properties you own, we should all be protected. if you don't protect the buy-to-let landlords with more than three properties you're actually delaying the timeframe for leaseholders like myself to be freed from this crisis."
"If my neighbours can't afford to pay their bills, then the building doesn't get fixed and my home isn't made safe, then I can't then move on with my life, even though the government has specifically, in a way, ringfenced people like myself to try and protect them, but actually we're still not freed from this crisis until everyone is."