Cabinet secretary to meet cladding campaigners to discuss slow pace of remediation works

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

The new Welsh cabinet secretary for housing has agreed to meet with cladding campaigners after they complained that work to make high rise buildings fire-safe is taking too long.

Welsh Cladiators wrote to to Jayne Bryant in August to express their concerns and continue their calls for a consultation forum with residents and leaseholders affected by fire safety defects.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said the cabinet secretary will meet with representatives of Welsh Cladiators next month as part of a stakeholder group to discuss remediation progress.

Some leaseholders have been campaigning for years to get remediation work at their blocks done and for developers to pay for it.

Defects

More recently, leaseholders at the Celestia flats in Cardiff Bay were told there will be a hearing in 2026 for their claims that the developers behind the complex, Redrow, should take responsibility for righting further building defects.

Leaseholders at the site, which has been affected by numerous issues like mould and collapsing render on the side of the building, were handed a proposal by Redrow in April to pay for and carry out fire safety works to the outside of the buildings.

The offer was welcomed at the time, but Celestia Management Company Limited (CMCL) also said it took far too long to materialise and that there were some “important omissions” in it.

A CMCL statement issued on Tuesday, September 3 states: “Today legal counsel on behalf of the Celestia Management Company Limited and a small group of leaseholders went before the courts to ask for permission to add further serious building defects to their previous claims against Redrow and to set directions towards a trial.

“During the proceedings Redrow’s KC submitted that the company had already admitted to a number of serious fire defects in 2022.

“Redrow’s counsel also sought to blame CMCL for delays in their current remediation plans, but these were robustly and factually rebutted by our counsel.

“So, despite the vigorous protestations and objections of Redrow’s counsel, the court allowed our amendments and set directions for a trial in 2026.”

The management company’s original claim against Redrow began in 2019.

Fire safety works

Redrow has previously funded internal fire safety works at Celestia and now say they have secured planning permission for the external works.

A Redrow spokesperson said: “At Celestia, we are pleased to have recently secured planning permission for the external fire safety remedial works.

“We continue to make progress in line with the timescales we communicated to residents in April 2024 with work on site currently planned to commence in early 2025 and complete in early 2027.

“This is subject to receiving the appropriate legal consents from Celestia’s management company.

“As things stand, the court hearing set to take place in 2026 will have no bearing on the planned programme of works to the external facade which we have fully planned and provided for.”

There are seven buildings at Celestia, constructed in 2007, and leaseholders there have had to pay out thousands of pounds in service charges over the years to help remediate them.

When we spoke to residents at Celestia in 2023, one woman said she was paying £7,000 a year in service charges and another said fees were £3,000 when she first moved in.

A public inquiry report published on Wednesday, September 4 showed that a number of government and private sector failings led to Grenfell Tower in West London, where 72 people died in a fire in 2017, becoming unsafe.

More recently, hundreds of firefighters were called to a fire at a 45-storey block of flats in Dagenham.

More than 80 people were evacuated from the building on Monday, August 26. At the time, it was undergoing external fire safety remediation work.

Building safety pact

A number of developers in Wales are signed up to a building safety pact, called the deed of bilateral contract, set up by the Welsh Government which commits them to fixing high rise buildings of 11 storeys or more that have life-threatening fire safety issues.

However, campaigners like Welsh Cladiators say work to put buildings right is not happening quick enough and that new legislation and sanctions are needed to speed up remediation.

In their letter to Jayne Bryant, Welsh Cladiators say they are “beset by stories of developers, freeholders and managing agents engaging in endless meetings over access issues and licences”.

It goes on to add: “Seven years post Grenfell there is little sign of urgency despite the fact that many of the developers involved are continuing to build new homes at pace across large parts of South Wales.

“Some of our members have been forced to go down the legal route to pursue developers such has been their tawdry response towards the crisis.

“At the same time we continue to have limited knowledge of the precise scale of the problem in Wales and the current state of remediation progress.”

A Welsh Government Spokesperson said: “The Cabinet Secretary is due to meet with representatives of Cladiators next month, as part of Welsh Government’s Strategic Stakeholder Group to discuss remediation progress.”