Feature: Flat owners caught in mortgage trap

The Grenfell fire tragedy of June 2017, in which 72 people died, has highlighted fire safety issues with thousands of blocks of flats, exposed decades of lax building controls, and shone a light on a construction sector that focused on building properties fast and cheap. The fire spread quickly […] Click here to view original…

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Remember Grenfell? Of course you do. Thousands of millennials are still living in flats surrounded by dangerous cladding and trapped in mortgage prisons as a result

It has been three years since the Grenfell tragedy which caused the deaths of 72 people in West London. The fire started in a fridge-freezer on the fourth floor of the 24 storey building and quickly spread throughout the whole of the tower block which housed 350 people. An […] Click here to view original…

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‘People could lose their flat and everything that they’ve ever put into it’ – Leaseholders’ concern over cladding costs

Three years on from the Grenfell tragedy, 145 private and social high-rise buildings in London, which includes at least 10,000 dwellings, still have the same Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding in place as Grenfell. These figures, relating to the removal and replacement of unsafe cladding in England, were released […] Click here to view original…

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Manchester tower block residents ineligible for £1bn recladding fund

Residents of a Manchester tower block facing bills of thousands of pounds to fix dangerous cladding have been dealt “a massive blow” after finding out they are ineligible to apply for the government’s new £1bn building safety fund. The fund, which was officially launched on Tuesday , excludes remediation […] Click here to view original…

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Applications for government’s £1bn fund to remove unsafe cladding open next week

Applications for the government’s £1bn fund to remove dangerous cladding from high-rise buildings will open on Monday. More than half a million people in England and Wales could be living in homes with unsafe cladding, analysis by industry body the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) said in February. […] Click here to view original…

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The dangers of living in lockdown in flats covered with flammable cladding

Ritu Saha, of Bromley in south London, is living in a building with flammable cladding during lockdown (Picture: Cladding Action Group) A woman living in a block of flats which could go up in flames at any moment has described how its residents feel ‘completely trapped’ during the coronavirus […] Click here to view original…

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