Further to her meeting in November, Fleur was again able to secure a meeting this morning between local residents in buildings affected by the cladding scandal and Lord Greenhalgh, the Building Safety Minister.

The meeting gave the residents and opportunity to raise their situations directly with Lord Greenhalgh and seek progress and intervention from his office, and raise thematic issues concerning the building safety scandal. The meeting was generally positive and and Lord Greenhalgh again agreed to take a closer look at the problems facing each block and explore the policy implications of the issues raised.

Those in attendance were:

Fleur Anderson
Lord Greenhalgh
Mill Court
Millbrooke Court
The Radial Development

See below a summary of the issues discussed

Mill Court

Following on from the previous meeting, several issues remained unresolved at Mill Court despite an intervention from Lord Greenhalgh.

Mill Court is under 11m and it does not come within the remit of the building safety fund. Yet residents have been told they face costs of around £1 million for remediation works. Lord Greenhalgh said he was “appalled” when he heard about the case and Optivo’s extensive remediation plans for such a small building. However, Optivo is still intending to move ahead with remediation works, subject to the announcement of further Government guidance.

Lord Greenhalgh agreed that Optivo’s behaviour was totally unacceptable and that a further approach was needed.

Millbrooke Court

In 2013, the Landlord for Millbrooke Court added an extra floor that it has just been discovered contains combustible cladding. In addition to being billed for repairs to this new extension, the residents have now been given a Section 20 notice with respect to this cladding. The residents urgently need to know whether current leaseholders be responsible for repairs to an extension built by the landlord, and whether the tax payer should be responsible for paying for the landlords mistakes.

The night before the meeting, a fire broke out at Millbrooke Court. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it simply underscored the stark and immediate reality of the building safety scandal and the urgent need to fix it.

The Radial Development

The Radial Development applied for funding the same day as applications opened in July 2020, following the discovery of unsafe, non-ACM cladding found on the block. They received an acceptance of application after several months and only got an initial response or indication of progress in November 2021 and more recently in February 2022.

Despite applying nearly two years ago, the BSF applications unit are still requiring further information which appears irrelevant which is further delaying vital funding. They are currently waiting on being granted eligibility status so they can progress to the Greater London Authority BSF team.