Social housing providers must have full and equal access to the Building Safety fund.
Under the current rules, social landlords can only access the Building Safety Fund to recover costs they would otherwise have charged to leaseholders or if the cost of remediating the block threatens their viability.
This is unfair. Ultimately, it places the burden on those who pay rents at these organisations and will see their money diverted to pay for cladding remediation. The cost of removing dangerous cladding should not fall on social housing tenants any more than leaseholders.
With extraordinary cost pressures due to new build commitments and the need to rapidly decarbonise their homes, social landlords cannot afford to meet the full cost of 30 years of regulatory failure as well.
Originally posted in Inside Housing on 27/09/20 by Peter Apps