After recently attending Persimmon’s 2024 shareholder AGM, we arranged a follow-up meeting on 2nd July to discuss the company’s building safety remediation programme in more depth.
We met with Andy Fuller, group construction director; Anthony Vigor, group director of strategic partnerships and external affairs; and Martin Edgeley, group special projects director with a day-to-day focus on the building safety remediation programme.
We discussed a wide range of topics which you can read about in our full report below. In summary:
• The pace of remediation work is unclear, as government data gives a very different impression of progress compared to information published directly by Persimmon.
• Most, if not all, remediation projects are expected to start work on site by Q2 2025 and works are expected to be complete on all developments except one by the end of 2026.
• In Persimmon’s experience, “not a single building” has gone through the Building Safety Regulator’s Gateway process for building control approval in the expected time frame so far.
• The challenge of agreeing access licences with Responsible Entities, including Resident Management Companies (RMC) or Right to Manage (RTM) companies, is seen as a key factor in delays to starting work.
• In the absence of a model form agreement between Participant Developers and Responsible Entities, “all are reinventing the wheel”. Persimmon wants to contribute to best practice guidance.
• At a development described as their “biggest frustration”, Persimmon were hopeful of getting an agreement this month that would allow works to start.
• From Persimmon’s experience, “the majority of issues on buildings are internal, not external”.
• The company’s recent experience of remediating thousands of houses has highlighted that “building safety issues extend beyond the scope of the pledge. At Persimmon, we look at any home regardless of height”.
• Where a project has transferred to Persimmon and substantial rework has been needed, it is unclear who will pay for the failed remediation works.
• Persimmon is committed to reimbursing any relevant costs that leaseholders have paid, including increased insurance costs. They agreed to look at cases where leaseholders believe they are still out of pocket.
Read the full report on our meeting with Persimmon here
CALL TO ACTION!
Are you a leaseholder or resident in a Persimmon building, having issues in relation to assessment or remediation – and unable to get a satisfactory response via your managing agent? Please contact the developer directly via the form on their website at persimmonhomes.com/cladding-enquiries.
If you need to escalate your concerns to MHCLG, please email building.safety@communities.gov.uk, providing the name and address of your building together with a short summary of your concerns, and detailing the attempts you have made to contact the developer. Please copy our team at endourcladdingscandal@gmail.com so that we can follow up where necessary.
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