• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Home
  • What is LKP
  • Find everything …
  • Contact
Donate

Leasehold Knowledge Management Logo

Secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform

Mobile Menu

  • Home
  • What is LKP
  • Find everything …
  • Contact
  • Advice
  • News
    • Find everything …
    • About Peverel group
    • APPG
    • ARMA
    • Bellway
    • Benjamin Mire
    • Brixton Hill Court
    • Canary Riverside
    • Charter Quay
    • Chelsea Bridge Wharf
    • Cladding scandal
    • Competition and Markets Authority / OFT
    • Commonhold
    • Communities Select Committee
    • Conveyancing Association
    • Countrywide
    • MHCLG
    • E&J Capital Partners
    • Exit fees
    • FirstPort
    • Fleecehold
    • Forfeiture
    • FPRA
    • Gleeson Homes
    • Ground rent scandal
    • Hanover
    • House managers flat
    • House of Lords
    • Housing associations
    • Informal lease extension
    • Insurance
    • IRPM
    • Jim Fitzpatrick MP
    • John Christodoulou
    • Justin Bates
    • Justin Madders MP
    • Law Commission
    • LEASE
    • Liam Spender
    • Local authority leasehold
    • London Assembly
    • Louie Burns
    • Martin Paine
    • McCarthy and Stone
    • Moskovitz / Gurvits
    • Mulberry Mews
    • National Leasehold Campaign
    • Oakland Court
    • Park Homes
    • Parliament
    • Persimmon
    • Peverel
    • Philip Rainey QC
    • Plantation Wharf
    • Press
    • Property tribunal
    • Prostitutes
    • Quadrangle House
    • Redrow
    • Retirement
    • Richard Davidoff
    • RICS
    • Right To Manage Federation
    • Roger Southam
    • Rooftop development
    • RTM
    • Sean Powell
    • SFO
    • Shared ownership
    • Sinclair Gardens Investments
    • Sir Ed Davey
    • Sir Peter Bottomley
    • St George’s Wharf
    • Subletting
    • Taylor Wimpey
    • Tchenguiz
    • Warwick Estates
    • West India Quay
    • William Waldorf Astor
    • Windrush Court
  • Parliament
  • Accreditation
  • [Custom]
Menu
  • Advice
  • News
      • Find everything …
      • About Peverel group
      • APPG
      • ARMA
      • Bellway
      • Benjamin Mire
      • Brixton Hill Court
      • Canary Riverside
      • Charter Quay
      • Chelsea Bridge Wharf
      • Cladding scandal
      • Competition and Markets Authority / OFT
      • Commonhold
      • Communities Select Committee
      • Conveyancing Association
      • Countrywide
      • MHCLG
      • E&J Capital Partners
      • Exit fees
      • FirstPort
      • Fleecehold
      • Forfeiture
      • FPRA
      • Gleeson Homes
      • Ground rent scandal
      • Hanover
      • House managers flat
      • House of Lords
      • Housing associations
      • Informal lease extension
      • Insurance
      • IRPM
      • Jim Fitzpatrick MP
      • John Christodoulou
      • Justin Bates
      • Justin Madders MP
      • Law Commission
      • LEASE
      • Liam Spender
      • Local authority leasehold
      • London Assembly
      • Louie Burns
      • Martin Paine
      • McCarthy and Stone
      • Moskovitz / Gurvits
      • Mulberry Mews
      • National Leasehold Campaign
      • Oakland Court
      • Park Homes
      • Parliament
      • Persimmon
      • Peverel
      • Philip Rainey QC
      • Plantation Wharf
      • Press
      • Property tribunal
      • Prostitutes
      • Quadrangle House
      • Redrow
      • Retirement
      • Richard Davidoff
      • RICS
      • Right To Manage Federation
      • Roger Southam
      • Rooftop development
      • RTM
      • Sean Powell
      • SFO
      • Shared ownership
      • Sinclair Gardens Investments
      • Sir Ed Davey
      • Sir Peter Bottomley
      • St George’s Wharf
      • Subletting
      • Taylor Wimpey
      • Tchenguiz
      • Warwick Estates
      • West India Quay
      • William Waldorf Astor
      • Windrush Court
  • Parliament
  • Accreditation
You are here: Home / Latest News / LKP response to Robert Jenrick £3.5bn ‘exceptional intervention’ to cladding high-rises today

LKP response to Robert Jenrick £3.5bn ‘exceptional intervention’ to cladding high-rises today

February 10, 2021 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Robert Jenrick

Press release

Interviews available with Dean Buckner, LKP trustee and former Bank of England economist
Author of the ‘LKP proposal to Secure private sector funding for cladding and fire safety remediation’

1/ General points

Today’s announcement is the latest example of the crisis-driven, piecemeal approach by government to resolving the cladding and building safety crisis – more than 3 1/2 years after Grenfell.

It certainly helps leaseholders in high-rises, but those in blocks less than 18 metres will have forced loans imposed on them to sort out the errors of other people.

It was very welcome that Mr Jenrick made a robust statement favouring a more at-risk approach, and hopefully that will mean the removal of many low-rise blocks from this crisis which should not be involved.

Government to bring an end to unsafe cladding with multi-billion pound intervention

Housing Secretary announces the government will pay for the removal of unsafe cladding for all leaseholders in high-rise buildings, providing reassurance and protecting them from costs New levy and tax on developers to ensure industry contributes Measures will boost the housing market and free up homeowners to once again buy and sell their properties Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders will be protected from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes, as Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick unveiled a five-point plan which will provide reassurance to homeowners and bring confidence to the housing market.

There will still be blighted lives, loss of homes and a stalled market in the resale of flats (which is already down 50% year-on-year Sept 2019-2020 according to Land Registry data).

Evidence of distressed sales is uncollated at present, but even today we were informed of a formerly £1.7 million flat at Point West, Cromwell Road SW7, selling to a cash buyer a £975,000 (interview).

Will thousands of leaseholders still be in danger of homelessness? Yes.

Will the government championing home ownership allow that to happen? Possibly not, but it will respond late when that crisis occurs, as it inevitably will.

2/ £3.5bn to high-rises

The proposal to issue grants of £3.5 billion to remediate cladding on high-rises (above 18 metres) and loans for low-rise blocks of flats (less than 18 metres) is unfair to those living in low rises.

Its justification is based on the exceptional risk of high rises.

But it could also be argued that it will help affluent leaseholders, particularly in London, who live in higher buildings compared with poorer leaseholders living in lower buildings throughout the country.

For example, the affluent West India Quay in Canary Wharf received cladding remediation money totalling around £45,000 to remove a minimal amount of ACM cladding. Solely because it was ACM cladding. Not because of risk. Still less, affordability.

In addition, there will likely be continued argument over what constitutes cladding: ie do the high-rise grants include insulation remediation, or do leaseholders pay up?

Those living in blocks that are lower than 18 metres will be given forced loans to get the work done.

The idea is that the loans will be capped at £50 a month, which is still a loan of between £14,500 and £24,000 of borrowing at 1.5% over between 30-60 years.

It is not just that leaseholders in low-rise buildings have these long-term loans imposed on them.

Many low-rise buildings have been dragged into the cladding crisis solely because of mortgage lenders’ refusal to accept building regulation approval and insisting on further EWS1 surveys. Many sub-18 metre sites do not have cladding at all.

Average cladding only replacement costs are estimated at £20-25,000 per flat, but the average cladding and fire safety defect remediation bills are £49,000 (ARMA and National Housing Federation). So the non-cladding bills more or less match the cladding ones.

On the other hand, one really positive note was that Robert Jenrick did make a robust statement concerning the risk of these buildings. He is aware many are not at high risk. Many should not be involved in this issue at all.

That is welcome and evidence of robust thinking.

3/ Developers: £2 billion over a decade

Mr Jenrick proposes a new tax on high-rises to raise £2 billion over a decade to help pay for remediation.

That is about covered by the ludicrous levels of pay in recent years to senior executives.

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership funding model is based on the principle that those responsible for this disaster pay to remedy it.

Some housebuilders – Barratt – have acknowledged the argument for a sector-wide levy.

Rumours that Persimmon plc is putting aside a £75m provision for cladding issues has affected the share price today – the sum roughly equates to the bonus paid to Jeffrey Fairburn, a former chief executive. This indicates that housebuilders do not expect levies to put right their handiwork to be too onerous. Persimmon made profits of more than a billion last year.

A tokenistic levy of a small amount from the building sector will rightly outrage leaseholders who bought their flawed products.

Leaseholders will ask, again rightly, why they are expected to foot the bill for build defects while cladding manufacturers are revealed in the Grenfell Inquiry to have cheated safety tests.

It is evident that we have a crisis in housebuilding, with builders and suppliers having an unhealthy close relationship with government and particularly building safety regulators.

Doling out grants and loans with no acknowledgement that there has been systemic failure ensures that we learn nothing from this crisis and are destined to repeat it.

The shocking revelations of the Grenfell Inquiry will continue to drive the argument for substantive reform of a toxic sector that is highly subsidised (Help To Buy).

4/ But it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good …

The solution the government is proposing is obliging to freeholders and managing agents with a vested interest in minimising legal risks to them and maximising their fee income.

If an average 15% fee is collected on the £15 billion estimated cost, agents stand to receive £2.25 billion. Nothing is being done to address these risks. Firm action should be taken to cap these fees to demonstrable out-of-pocket expenses or to remove them entirely

Related posts:

Robert Jenrick £1 billion claddingCladding leaseholders rejoice after Robert Jenrick secures £1bn in Budget … on top of £400m already pledged Cladding victims unimpressed by Robert Jenrick on BBC1’s Question Time Top civil servant warns Robert Jenrick over £1bn cladding bailout … promises post-Grenfell blame game won’t happen again Islington Gates £8m billsAppeal to Robert Jenrick: Islington Gates faces evacuation if cladding bills not paid on April 1 You need professional property managers to deal with fire safety in high-rises, says FirstPort CEO Nigel Howell

Category: Cladding scandal, Latest News, NewsTag: Cladding scandal, Robert Jenrick

Latest Tweets

Tweets by @LKPleasehold

Mentions

Anthony Essien (34) APPG (36) ARMA (86) Bellway (30) Benjamin Mire (32) Cladding scandal (70) Clive Betts MP (31) CMA (42) Commonhold (51) Competition and Markets Authority (37) Countryside Properties plc (32) FirstPort (36) Forfeiture (29) Grenfell cladding (55) Ground rents (51) James Brokenshire MP (31) Jim Fitzpatrick (35) Jim Fitzpatrick MP (30) Justin Bates (38) Justin Madders MP (62) Katie Kendrick (35) Law Commission (59) LEASE (66) Leasehold Advisory Service (62) Leasehold houses (32) Long Harbour (44) Martin Boyd (78) McCarthy and Stone (39) National Leasehold Campaign (38) Persimmon (49) Peverel (61) Property tribunal (49) Redrow (29) Retirement (37) Robert Jenrick (33) Roger Southam (47) Sajid Javid (38) Sebastian O’Kelly (55) Sir Peter Bottomley (197) Taylor Wimpey (104) Tchenguiz (33) The Guardian (32) The Times (31) Vincent Tchenguiz (40) Waking watch contracts (40)
Previous Post: « Question Time: Zoom meeting with LKP cladding funding proposal team, Tuesday 5pm February 9 2021
Next Post: Why the law won’t help cladding leaseholders »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kat

    February 11, 2021 at 9:38 am

    it is the Government’s first and foremost duty to look after and protect people of the country. It is very hard not to notice that the government does not really want to do that. Which side the government is on? The people’s and the society’s or the financial predictors who make money on these ordinary people, possibly paying minimum taxes and spending money abroad and not inside our country. If the government cannot protect people, who will protect them? And why do we need the government that is not interested in protecting us? Leasehold system is an archaic way which for some reason is used in 21 century. Why? Because there are people who make profits using unfair ways allowed by the Government. It has to be stopped and the government has to start looking after the people. People has the right to live in healthy, financially secure country with the government that look after them and protects them.

  2. Michael Hollands

    February 11, 2021 at 5:36 pm

    Is the 18mtrs height limit measured to the ceiling level of the top floor or to the ridge of a pitched roof?

  3. Sally

    February 11, 2021 at 11:44 pm

    The government may champion Home owners but we know that leaseholders are Not home owners, so do the government but for decades the whole shambolic feudal system has been touted as home ownership. Until more people actually realise what leasehold is ( a tenancy )
    Then people will keep buying the illusion.

  4. Sally mills

    February 11, 2021 at 11:48 pm

    As for the disastrous cladding system it should not even be the government (our taxes) paying for the remedial works, it should be the building developers that fitted the shoddy and unsafe cladding in the first place that pay to correct their mistakes.

  5. Patrick

    February 13, 2021 at 2:22 pm

    What did Mr Jenrick say about caveat emptor? this below is the actual statement.

    “Broadly speaking, English property rights are based on caveat emptor—buyer beware—and the contents of the leases, contracts, warranties and insurance policies that we as homeowners sign. ”

    So the fact is that for many millions of people who purchased their home using a solicitor in order to make sure your purchase followed the legal rules, we now see that buying property is based on the fact that any and every proposed purchase could leave you up s*** creek without a paddle.

    Thats nice to know, I wonder if this note is in any of the sales brochures?

  6. PeteHear

    February 15, 2021 at 7:46 am

    Government statement 10th February prompts this question to be answered on 24th February in House of Commons.
    What incentive do the proposals give to freeholders and developers to build safely?
    Reasoning behind the question =
    The majority of £5.1bn fund will come from the tax payers.
    The remainder of fire safety remedies will be paid for by leaseholders when Government has repeatedly said Leaseholders should pay nothing.

  7. Marcus

    February 15, 2021 at 9:31 am

    Government permitted corruption. Everything related to leasehold is just one big massive scam to line the pockets of the rich. It’s disgusting.

  8. George Lloyd

    February 15, 2021 at 6:09 pm

    George Lloyd…

    If the Government had sorted out this leasehold scam system years ago as they should have done they would not be faced with the problems they now have… this is what happens when you have an elite group of crony friends managing the country instead of intelligent people who are not hell bent on making cuts in safety for the sake of a few quid.

    The people in power making decisions about remediation for cladding seem to have the same attitude to funding as they have done with anything concerning leasehold, just ignoring the facts that anyone with a few brain cells could tell you in a few words, ie, that the funding is nowhere near what it should be and with other building safety problems that need sorting out discarded as if they didn’t exist.

    We leaseholders have had over the years a systematic denial that anything was wrong with this vile leasehold game, housing ministers having what can only be described as an ignorant and uncaring attitude as if we were some sort of lower class animal, not worth bothering with.
    Its been going on for decades now and we still have no firm commitment, When will we see some action to abolish leasehold, its always a case of sticking plaster and compromise so that aristocratic top hatted playboy parasites can have their cake and eat it.

    I think this Government can thank its lucky stars that the Covid pandemic has made people who suffer the consequenses of the decisions of the ruling elite stay housebound, for if it were not the case I am certain that there would be real mass rallies akin to what we are hearing of in Russia at the moment.

    I am absolutely disgusted with this government, and don’t forget it was Boris who said after he was given a majority vote in the last election that he would not forget those who voted him in. Words come cheap.

Above Footer

Advising leaseholders. Avoiding disasters.
Stopping forfeiture. Exposing abuses. Urging reform.

We depend on individuals for the majority of our funding.

Support Us and Donate

LKP Managing Agents

Become an LKP Managing Agent

Common Ground
Adam Church
Blocnet property management2

Stay in Touch

To achieve victory in the leasehold game where you are playing against professionals and with rules that they know all too well - stay informed with the LKP newsletter.
Sign Up for Newsletter

Professional Directory

The following advertisements are from firms that seek business from leaseholders.
Click on the logos for company profiles.

Footer

About LKP

  • What is LKP
  • Privacy and data

Categories

  • News
  • Cladding scandal
  • Commonhold
  • Law Commission
  • Fleecehold
  • Parliament
  • Press
  • APPG

Contact

Leasehold Knowledge Partnership
Open Data Institute
5th Floor
Kings Place
London N1 9AG

sok@leaseholdknowledge.com

Copyright © 2022 Leasehold Knowledge Partnership | All rights reserved
Leasehold Knowledge Partnership Limited (company number: 08999652) is a company limited by guarantee that is a registered charity (number: 1162584) with the Charities Commission.
LKP website is hosted at no charge by www.34sp.com
Website by Callia Web