Cladding: Government should ‘get a grip’ on crisis – Labour
image captionBuilders remove cladding from a block in Greater Manchester The government needs to “get a grip” on cladding problems which have created “ruinous costs” for homeowners, the Labour leader has said. Sir Keir Starmer accused ministers of offering “half-baked solutions” and called for a taskforce to be set […]Click here to view original web…
Cladding Ban on Buildings Has Come Into Effect in Victoria
Victorian Minister for Housing Richard Wynne speaks to the media at the daily briefing on July 06, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images) A ban on high-risk cladding on new multi-storey buildings has come into effect in Victoria, with non-compliant builders facing fines of up to $400,000. The […] Click here to view original…
£30m Waking Watch Relief Fund now open for applications
£30m fire alarm fund will relieve residents of waking watch costs Funding targeted at cities with most high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding Builds on £1.6 billion funding to speed up removal of unsafe cladding on eligible buildings Tens of thousands of residents in high-rise buildings can now access financial […] Click here to view original…
Victorian Government bans high-risk cladding for new multi-storey buildings in ‘world first’
The Victorian Government says the banned cladding products can be “high risk” when installed incorrectly.(ABC News: James Glenday) A ban on cladding deemed by the Victorian Government to be high risk comes into force today in a bid to reduce fire hazards. Victoria’s Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, announced […] Click here to view original…
Flat owners face £160,000 bills to replace cladding three years after Grenfell
Britain’s housing crisis has left millions of people trapped in unsafe and unsellable homes Flat owners up and down the country are facing bankruptcy and homelessness after being hit with ‘life ruining’ bills to fix Britain’s unsafe buildings. Leaseholders affected by the scandal could be liable to pay as […] Click here to view original…
State toughens building laws to ban combustible cladding
The state government has changed the Building Act to ban dangerous cladding on new multistorey properties, in the latest clampdown on shonky practices. Planning Minister Richard Wynne announced a prohibition – effective from Monday – on the use of combustible materials, replacing previous looser guidelines, with non-compliant builders now […] Click here to view original…
The Observer view on scandal of buyers left counting the cost of deadly flats
Three and a half years ago, 72 people lost their lives in the Grenfell fire. It was a horrifying and preventable tragedy: the tower block in which they lived had been covered in dangerously flammable cladding that had failed fire safety tests , but which was nevertheless frequently used […] Click here to view original…
Bravery of cladding scandal victims
Last October, when The Sunday Times launched its Safe Homes for All campaign , the extent of the cladding crisis in Scotland was unknown. Since then we have uncovered the tower blocks that were missed off the Scottish government’s High Rise Inventory and spoken to homeowners in Glasgow, West […] Click here to view original…
Hold builders to account and resolve this housing scandal
It is now more than 3½ years since the avoidable tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire. The loss of life in that disaster will never be forgotten, and never should be. It has been followed by dither and delay by the government in dealing with the many other properties […] Click here to view original…
70 high-rise blocks in Camden among applications to cladding cost support fund
Some leaseholders have faced bills for tens of thousands of pounds elsewhere in the country West Hampstead Square OWNERS of about 70 high-rise private housing blocks in Camden have applied to a government fund set up to support leaseholders facing thousands of pounds of cladding costs. The figure emerged […] Click here to view original…
Cabinet tussle over £10bn pot for cladding victims as experts warn it STILL won’t spare homeowners from pain of 30-year loans to fund repairs
Pressure is mounting on the Chancellor to sanction a £10billion rescue package for families hit by the building safety scandal. Rishi Sunak is being pressed by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick to come up with a multi-billion-pound deal to repair homes with dangerous cladding. Ministers are considering imposing a levy […] Click here to view original…
Revealed: the hidden scale of Scotland’s cladding crisis
Combustible panels similar to those on Grenfell Tower have been identified on 38 blocks, suggesting that about 2,200 residents are living in affected buildings The true scale of Scotland’s cladding crisis has been revealed after a Times investigation discovered thousands of flat-owners whose properties have been rendered worthless by […] Click here to view original…