[ad_1]
More building owners will be held accountable for repairs to high-rise properties thanks to a multi-million pound expansion of council enforcement teams.
Backed by more than £8 million in government funding, local enforcement units will benefit from more resources to pursue freeholders who are dragging their heels and refusing to start repairs.
Councils have already launched crackdowns through their own teams, but with additional support will now be able to provide safe and secure homes to more innocent leaseholders.
Funding from the Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities will be distributed across England’s 59 councils and will be prioritized for those with the highest number of unsafe buildings, particularly concentrated in London, Manchester and Birmingham.
Building Safety Minister Lee Rowley said:
Building owners should carry out the necessary cladding repairs as quickly as possible and we will be relentless in pursuing those who do not.
We are strengthening councils’ enforcement operations, better equipping them to make the most of the powers they have to hold freeholders to account and prevent them from dragging their feet.
I look forward to working with the council to ensure that we keep up the pressure on freeholders to step up to the plate.
Cllr Dora Dixon-Phyle, Cabinet Member for Community Safety at Southwark Council, said:
We are taking enforcement action against private residential building owners who have not completed the required cladding work for the past few years. This is part of our comprehensive fire safety measures that look to keep people safe.
However, we have many more tall buildings than other London boroughs, meaning this funding will support a much-needed expansion of our work.
The Building Safety Act specifies that building owners must fix their own buildings and developers are the first to pay to protect leaseholders from repair bills. The additional funding will help ensure that freeholders cannot escape their obligations.
More than 45 of the UK’s biggest housebuilders have pledged to do the right thing and have agreed to fund work to fix life-sensitive, fire-safety defects on buildings 11 meters and over, and have played a role in more than 30 developments or refurbishments over the past was Years – including those who have applied for or received government funding.
Where a developer cannot be identified or has not yet agreed to pay for its own buildings, a £4.5 billion Building Safety Fund is available to pay for work to address vital fire safety issues with buildings over 18 meters high with cladding. .
In this scenario, for eligible buildings of 11-18m height, a new scheme funded by developers through the Building Safety Levy will pay to address life safety fire risk issues which will be launched next year following a pilot launched last month.
[ad_2]
Source link
