Cladding- Government open to discussion about support for private landlords
This week, Lord Naseby raised an amendment to the Building Safety Bill which would ensure all individual landlords renting out leasehold properties would be included in the Government’s plans that no leaseholders should pay to remediate unsafe cladding.
The Government has set out proposals that only landlords who let one property would be covered by the plans for developers to pay for remediation on medium-rise buildings (11-18 metres high). While the Government rejected Lord Naseby’s amendment, the Minister, Lord Greenhalgh, asked for further discussions on support for landlords.
Lord Naseby’s amendment was debated at the Committee Stage of the Bill, during which peers consider the detail of a bill and propose changes. He referenced the ‘strong representations’ from the NRLA on this issue, saying:
“[The UK Government] is introducing a very dangerous principle, basically stating that there are worthy and unworthy victims of the cladding crisis. I ask my noble friend [Lord Greenhalgh, Minister for Building Safety and Fire] to reflect that the Government should make it clear that any and all leaseholders should be treated the same.”
His amendment received cross-party support, including from the Shadow Spokesperson for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Baroness Hayman, who said that “leaseholders should not be liable to pay for any costs that have resulted from a faulty regulatory system… all leaseholders should be treated exactly the same”.
Government rejects amendment but asks for further discussion
In response, Lord Greenhalgh said that the Government was not able to accept the amendment. He did however acknowledge: “very real examples of leaseholders with narrow, not broad, shoulders who may have a certain amount of property in their retirement portfolio and have chosen to invest in property as a way of guaranteeing their income in old age… sometimes, there are landlords with pretty narrow shoulders, and I do not think it is the intention of the Secretary of State and the Government to be unduly unfair on those people.”
He also confirmed that buy-to-let landlords remain eligible for grants from the Building Safety Fund to fix unsafe cladding on high-rise – over 18 metre – buildings ‘irrespective of how many properties they own’.
Lord Greenhalgh further committed to discussing the issue with Lord Naseby and policy officials.
The NRLA has written to Lord Greenhalgh following the debate to request a meeting.
The debate on Lord Naseby’s amendment comes after extensive campaigning on this issue from the NRLA, including our chief executive, Ben Beadle, responding to the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, and giving evidence to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee, as well as engagement with individual MPs and peers and with officials at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
We have also seen two early day motions raised by Sir Peter Bottomley MP in the Commons, which have received cross-party support.
Call for case studies
If you have multiple properties in medium-rise (11-18 metre high) buildings, and are affecting by the cladding crisis, we want to hear from you to support our campaigning work. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] with a brief outline of your situation.
