Responding to warnings by government that developers must pay to fix cladding crisis, Cllr David Renard, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents 350 councils across England and Wales, said:
āNo leaseholder should have to pay the costs of making their homes safe and the Secretary of Stateās threat to useĀ the legal system to ensure developers meet their responsibilitiesĀ to leaseholders is a positive step in the right direction. However, leaseholders are not the only innocent victims of the construction industryās failure to build safe homes.
āThe construction industry must also be made to fix the fire safety defects it has built into blocks owned by councils and housing associations. Unless the Government forces the industry to act ā or provides funding ā we are concerned that the costs of fixing social housing blocks will fall on council housing revenue accounts and housing associations.
“This will reduce the funding available to meet the Governmentās ambitions for improvements to social housing, net zero and the provision of new social housing, leaving tenants and those on the waiting list to suffer the consequences of decades of industry failure and poor regulation. Like leaseholders, council tenants and those on the waiting list are innocent victims and the Government needs to help them too.”
