WOBO thanks Workplace DNA for the Grenfell update.

The Government has announced that it has reset its approach to building safety with a new plan to protect leaseholders and make wealthy developers and companies pay to fix the cladding crisis. Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Michael Gove, guaranteed that no leaseholder living in their own flat will have to pay a penny to fix unsafe cladding.

Following Mr Gove’s letter to industry, the old proposed loan scheme for leaseholders in medium-rise flats will be scrapped, with industry given two months to agree to a financial contributions scheme to fund the new plan, otherwise, if necessary, the Government will impose a solution in law. In addition, a new dedicated team is being established to pursue and expose companies at fault and to force them to shoulder the burden of making buildings safe.

Mr Gove revealed a four-point plan to reset the Government’s approach:

• Opening up the next phase of the Building Safety Fund to drive forward taking dangerous cladding off high-rise buildings, prioritising the Government’s £5.1bn funding on the highest risk.
• Those at fault will be held properly to account: a new team is being established to pursue and expose companies at fault, making them fix the buildings they built and face commercial consequences if they refuse.
• Restoring common sense to building assessments: indemnifying building assessors from being sued; and withdrawing the old, misinterpreted government advice that prompted too many buildings being declared as unsafe.
• New protections for leaseholders living in their own flats: with no bills for fixing unsafe cladding and new statutory protections for leaseholders within the Building Safety Bill.

Find out more here.