Minister refuses to rule out compulsory building purchases to fix flammable cladding

Building freeholders who refuse to fix unsafe and combustible cladding could face losing their property to a compulsory government purchase. Housing minister Christopher Pincher (pictured) confirmed the government was open to all options, potentially including compulsory purchases, to solve the issue. While government funds have been made available for […] Click here to view original…

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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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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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Remediation of non-ACM buildings

In the March 2020 budget, the government announced that it will provide £1 billion in 2020 to 2021 to support the remediation of unsafe non-ACM cladding system on residential buildings 18 metres and over in both the private and social housing sectors. The government is now asking potential applicants […] Click here to view original…

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Flat owners unable to sell or remortgage due to cladding crisis

Cladding is the housing subject no-one wants to resolve, due to the potentially eye-watering costs involved. But it’s slowly suffocating those affected, namely flat owners living in blocks covered in cladding, who want to sell and move on with their lives. The issue is that the owners are unable […] Click here to view original…

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