UPDATING … A £200 million fund to remove Grenfell cladding from private blocks was announced this morning by Communities Secretary James Brokenshire on the BBCR4 Today programme. It can be heard at 07.10 here This action has been long predicted by LKP, believing that ministers’ appeals to freeholders and developers to “do the decent thing” […]
Paddington Walk leaseholders have paid £3.5m to remove Grenfell cladding, with more to come …
Leaseholders at Paddington Walk have paid out £3.5 million to remove Grenfell cladding from the site, even though ministers have said leaseholders should not pay. An additional bit of £5.4 million is on the way, according to Inside Housing. The site was built in 2005 by European Land and Property, a joint venture development company […]
Campaign to get government to help fund Grenfell cladding removal
Today sees the launch of a campaign calling on the government to help fund the recladding of the private blocks impacted by ACM cladding led by InsideHousing in support of the UK Cladding Action Group (UKCAG). LKP is proud to help support this campaign along with many other groups and MPs including leasehold and commonhold […]
Grenfell cladding leaseholders form campaign group
A campaign group of leaseholders in private blocks with Grenfell cladding is being formed. It is calling itself the UK Cladding Action Group: UKCAG and can be contacted here: ukcladdingactiongroup@gmail.com LKP welcomes the initiative and will do all that it can to assist. The Guardian reports: “Only 10 of the 173 private buildings discovered with […]
Lendlease caves in over £5m Grenfell cladding bills at Vallea Court and Cypress Place
In yet another retreat by plc house builders, the Aussie giant Lendlease is stumping up to pay to remove the Grenfell cladding at Vallea Court and Cypress Place, in Manchester’s Green Quarter. Before government ministers start talking rubbish about “freeholders doing the decent thing” – or worse, describing these speculators in residential freehold income streams […]
Theresa May also thinks that ‘building owners’ – freeholders – will pay for Grenfell cladding
<span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span>&amp;amp;amp;lt;span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;gt; After Sajid Javid, James Brokenshire and Kit Malthouse … now the prime minister this afternoon insists that “building owners” will pay for Grenfell cladding removal. The Tchenguiz group at Northpoint in Bromley has already […]
Furious attack on government Grenfell cladding inaction in Commons
The government was under attack in the Commons today over its inactivity over Grenfell cladding in private blocks of flats. John Healey, Labour shadow housing secretary, made a powerful attack on Housing minister Kit Malthouse, asking “if the government cannot deal with this, what is it in office for?” Mr Malthouse said, “as a result […]
Grenfell cladding leaseholders despair of government doing anything ..
“For residents in private sector buildings identified as having this accelerant-type cladding we were often hopeful and encouraged by Government assurances from James Brokenshire and Kit Malthouse, that the cost will be met, not by leaseholders, but by the freeholder or developers. In a statement regarding this issue, Brokenshire threatened that if they did not […]
Tchenguiz group dismisses government ‘hollow threat’ to make freeholders pay for Grenfell cladding removal
But hints that it would have liked to help, if only the ‘existential threat’ of leasehold reforms were dropped … The Tchenguiz organisation has said that the government should stop demanding that freeholders pay to remove Grenfell cladding from 272 private apartment blocks. It is a “hollow threat and it knows it”, says William Kenneth […]
Fury in Manchester as Lendlease wins £160m contract to refurb city hall, while dumping Grenfell cladding costs on leaseholders
Anger has erupted in Manchester after Australian building group Lendlease was awarded a £330 million contract to refurbish the city hall – while declining to help remove Grenfell cladding from its private sites in the city. Lendlease refuses to contribute to remove cladding at two sites in Green Quarter, Vallea Court and Cypress Place which […]
Pull the other one, Vincent! Leasehold reform hasn’t stuffed Fairhold. It was downgraded in 2015 …
In today’s Financial Times interview, Vincent Tchenguiz says the sale of his Fairhold Securitisation Limited has collapsed because of buyers’ concerns over government reforms to leasehold. Vincent Tchenguiz pushes back on UK leasehold reform Property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz is lobbying against proposed changes to the leasehold system that his company says threaten “unintended detrimental […]
Santa visits Citiscape and New Providence Wharf
Twelve months ago the leaseholders in Citiscape Croydon were in a very dark place. They were being taken to the Tribunal by FirstPort to prove that they should be liable for cladding costs, which were estimated at over £2 million – over £20,000 per flat. The leaseholders had been given poor advice by LEASE on […]
MHCLG ‘fundamentally flawed’ in expecting freeholders to pay for Grenfell cladding removal, LKP tells the FT
The FT today reports that government hopes that speculators in residential freeholds – especially anonymous ones hidden offshore – are unlikely to pay up to remove Grenfell cladding. The article coincided with reports of Places for People, freeholder of Leeds Saxton, issuing a non-repayable loan to leaseholders and pursuing a claim against warranty provider NHBC. […]
Slough Council v Benji the Binman over Grenfell cladding costs at Nova House
Slough Council – which made the unaccountable decision to buy the freehold of Grenfell cladding site Nova House for £1 – was in tribunal earlier last week against a formidable opponent, Benjamin Pell, better know to journalists as Benji the Binman. Mr Pell, who came to national attention after raiding the dustbins of London’s leading […]
Brokenshire tells freeholders to pay up to remove Grenfell cladding. But how can that work?
The government is persisting with its argument that “building owners” must pay up to remove Grenfell cladding from their sites – even though the law has said that they don’t pay, leaseholders do. The statement today from Communities Secretary James Brokenshire says: “Local authorities will get the government’s full backing, including financial support if necessary, […]
Brokenshire wrongly says freeholders have paid for Grenfell cladding removal
Communities Secretary James Brokenshire told the Commons yesterday that freeholders had paid up to remove Grenfell cladding from private blocks. He was replying to a parliamentary question from Hilary Benn concerning astronomic Grenfell cladding costs at Saxton and Skyline Apartments in his Leeds constituency. Mr Brokenshire should understand that the developers who have paid up […]
