A few updates on my cladding campaign.

Firstly, I am putting together a dossier of stories documenting the huge costs, real safety worries and impacts on family life & mental health of the cladding scandal which I will be sending to the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick. I know many, many of you have already sent me your stories and written at great length on how it is impacting you, but for those who have not yet written in and want to share your stories I would like to hear them and add them to the dossier.

With this in mind, please could you send them in to fleur.anderson.mp@parliament.uk by Wednesday 30th June

Secondly, please be aware that building owners are required to submit full applications for grant funding through the Building Safety Fund for cladding remediation by the end of June 2021 and start on site by the end of September 2021. If your building is eligible for funding and if they have not done so already, please do ensure your building owners or Property Manager meets this deadline. I know of several blocks who, for several reasons, are not in a position to meet this deadline despite being registered with the fund.

I have been in contact with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on this point, and they have issued the following guidance:

“We recognise that meeting these deadlines may not be possible in all circumstances, for instance where applicants find that they do not have sufficient time to complete a robust and satisfactory procurement process in order to meet the June deadline. In these cases, if more time is needed to be able to complete the required steps (as set out in this guidance which can be found on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings) then this will be permitted on a case by case basis, providing applicants continue to provide delivery partners with realistic but ambitious project delivery timetables and continue to keep delivery partners fully informed about any changes to those timetables.”

Please do get in touch if this applies to you.

In better news, two blocks I have been working with for over a year now have finally received their EWS1 forms after months of chasing developers and Property Managers, and will not require remedial works. So progress can and is being made. As always, if your block is in a position where you are unable due to lenders requiring an EWS1 form, then please do get in touch and I will take steps to try and unblock the process.

Finally, in terms of Parliamentary developments, unfortunately despite numerous attempts by MPs and Lords the Government repeatedly voted down our amendments to the Fire Safety Bill designed to protect leaseholders from cladding costs. The Bill has now passed and received Royal Assent, which is hugely disappointing. Our attention will now turn to the Building Safety Bill, which was promised in Queen’s Speech last month but has yet to be introduced to Parliament.

Please do get in touch if you require any intervention with your blocks, and please reply to this email if you wish to be removed from this mailing list.