‘Desperate situation for thousands of Bristolians trapped in cladding crisis’

“I face losing my home, job and career all in one go.”
“I can’t move, I can’t sell and the only solution I am able to see at the moment is suicide.”
“Trapped in a building that I used to call my home”.
“Life has been ruined for the last two years.”
“Constant anxiety”.
“Deteriorating mental health”.

These are some of the harrowing messages I’ve received from Bristolians trapped in unsafe flats, with no clear end in sight four and a half years after the start of the dangerous cladding crisis.

If you look at newspapers and websites, you could be excused for thinking the cladding scandal is over and the buildings have been fixed.

Unfortunately, there are still many thousands of people trapped in unsafe flats across the country. Many of them feel forgotten and abandoned by a government that has lurched on to other crises. But Labour is still pushing to protect leaseholders from unfair costs and the safety defects left by dodgy builders and corner-cutting developers.

A few weeks ago, I sent a survey to everyone who has asked me for help with dangerous cladding. I received 256 responses from people in 45 buildings in my constituency of Bristol West, allowing me to estimate the problems affecting 3,000-3,500 flats.

I have long been aware of these problems but the results of the survey have laid bare just how widespread and troubling this crisis has become.

The Milliners is just one of the properties in Bristol affected by the building safety crisis – photo by Martin Booth

While this crisis started with Grenfell Tower’s flammable cladding, the safety problems now go beyond the cladding problems to include missing firebreaks, defective alarms and sprinklers, wooden balconies and faulty insulation.

Buildings above 18 metres in height with dangerous cladding problems were supposed to be helped by the Building Safety Fund (BSF), for which applications were opened on July 31 2020.

But the speed of progress is appalling. According to my survey, there are at least 18 buildings above 18 metres tall eligible to receive BSF funding in my constituency, yet only three have had a response from the BSF team, with all the other applications stuck in the process for up to a year or more.

In practice, that means 1,000 homes in my constituency are in tower blocks with dangerous cladding, waiting for months for the government to make a decision so contractors can begin to fix them. This is not good enough.

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Read more: Bristol’s building safety crisis uncovered 

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The crisis has extended to many smaller buildings too. The government recently changed its policy to state that buildings below 18 metres in height do not need a special ‘EWS1’ survey, yet many of my constituents in at least 10 smaller buildings are still finding it impossible to get a survey, and impossible to sell their properties without one. I’ve asked the government to urgently fix this but ministers have so far dismissed my questions.

The injustice doesn’t end there. There are too many examples to mention them all, but people who have bought flats through ‘Help to Buy’ shared ownership schemes are forced into a particularly unfair situation.

From my survey, one in five respondents own a part of their house through a shared ownership scheme, so they own just a part of their flat. Yet many are being told that they must pay 100 per cent of any remediation costs, potentially ruining them financially. To me, this seems grossly unjust and must be clarified urgently.

And the sums involved are eye-watering. Most people affected still don’t know how much they will end up paying towards fixing their homes. Many estimate it could be in the range of £70,000-£100,000.

I can’t even begin to imagine the stress of living with the worry that you could end up having to shell out multiple years of income to fix a house that was deemed safe when you brought it.

Perhaps most tragically, the mental health impact of the cladding crisis came through clearly in people’s responses. This was also the main finding of a new study released last week, which concluded that the impact of the crisis on the mental health of leaseholders has been “catastrophic”.

In response to my survey, people shared about their stress of not being able to sell their homes, move for a new job, or plan a family. Almost every respondent reported feeling a mix of being “stuck”, “cheated”, “in debt”, “angry”. And yet despite all the assurances from the government or developers, 95 per cent of respondents do not feel the fire safety issues have been resolved completely.

I will be sharing my findings in a letter to Michael Gove, secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities. I have also written ministerial questions and requested a meeting. I will continue to share the concerns and suffering of those affected, amplifying it through the media and in my role as shadow leader of the House of Commons.

I would like to reassure all those who have written to me or completed the survey, that as your elected representative I will be relentless in my pursuit of a fair resolution to this crisis. You have been waiting too long.

Thangam Debbonaire says tenants affected by the building safety crisis have been waiting too long for justice. Photo a still from Parliamentlive.tv

Thangam Debbonaire is the Labour MP for Bristol West and shadow leader of the House of Commons 

Main photo by Ellie Pipe

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