Leaseholders slam Welsh Government building safety pact

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

People being kept awake at night by the problems racking their high-rise flats said a Welsh Government pact that’s supposed to keep them safe is “completely unfit for purpose”.

Members of Welsh Cladiators, a group campaigning for improved building safety, laid out their frustrations over the pace of high-rise remediation in Wales at the Senedd’s local government and housing committee last week.

A number of major developers signed up to the Welsh Government’s building safety pact between 2022 and 2024, which requires all buildings measuring 11m or more in height to be made fire safe.

However many people who live in these flats complain it is taking too long for developers to fix their homes and claim the Welsh Government isn’t doing enough to hold them to account.

‘Unfit’

Addressing the Senedd committee last week Marc Harries, a resident of Victoria Wharf in Cardiff, called the building safety pact “completely unfit for purpose”.

Mark Thomas of the Celestia building complex, also in Cardiff, said leaseholders don’t have confidence in what he called the Welsh Government’s “light-touch” approach to the building safety crisis.

Many leaseholders in Wales have been fighting years for the developers behind their buildings to completely fund remediation works and accept liability for other non-fire related faults.

With the building safety pact lacking strict timeframes for work to be completed and consequences that can be enforced if developers don’t stick to their commitments leaseholders said they’re having to fend for themselves when it comes to getting their homes fixed.

The result, according to them, is being left in a nightmarish state of limbo in which they are unable to sell their flats and are having to spend thousands of pounds on legal fees.

Mr Thomas of Celestia told the Senedd committee leaseholders are being forced to deal on their own with an industry that “continues to operate at a snail’s pace”.

‘Brutal reality’

He said: “The performance is the ultimate reality and the ultimate reality at least in the private sector… [is that] in Wales as of a month or two ago only four buildings out of 161 have been remediated and many of us fear it’s going to be 2030… and it’s going to go beyond then.

“That is the brutal reality of what we’re facing.”

The Welsh Government’s latest update on its building safety programme, published in July, showed of the 461 buildings in it 43% have either been completed or have works ongoing on them.

Residents in Swansea’s Altamar flats have been waiting years for fire safety work to be carried out on their building.

One leaseholder who was present at last week’s Senedd committee meeting, Rob Nicholls, said he has to call the bank every month for an extension on his mortgage after he was unable to redeem it.

Mr Nicholls added: “Anyone in their right mind isn’t going to repossess my flat.”

Complex

Bellway, the developers behind Altamar, said in a news report on leaseholders’ concerns published in August that the issues affecting progress there are lengthy and complex and have been hampered by ongoing legal proceedings.

Mr Harries of Victoria Wharf said: “I would ask everybody… how many of them [developers, agents and sub-contractors] lie awake at night thinking about these problems?

“I would politely suggest very… few.

“Many of us have had many sleepless nights over these problems.

“I owe a mortgage company a load of money. My flat’s worth nothing.”

One of the major problems according to leaseholders is that they’re having to negotiate contracts for works themselves which leads to a mismatch between those for whom carrying out such deals is “bread and butter” and people lacking legal expertise.

Mr Thomas of Celestia said: “Those contracts are taking months to sign… Unless they’re signed the developer can’t even come on site to start the works.”

At Celestia leaseholders were constantly in negotiations with Redrow over a works contract and claimed it took so long to be finalised because clauses kept being proposed by the developers right before agreed deadlines.

Barratt Redrow said at the time it remained poised to start remediation work on Celestia in line with its commitments and that it was hopeful a contract would be agreed imminently.

Leaseholders aren’t the only ones who are demanding that developers quicken the pace of remediation work on high rise buildings.

In Cardiff, where most of these buildings are located, councillors voted in favour of a motion earlier this year that called on the Welsh Government to be firmer with private developers and make sure work progresses without delay.

The Welsh Government said it is doing its bit to ensure developers are made aware of the demand to fix high-rise buildings as quickly as possible.

‘At pace’

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The cabinet secretary meets regularly with developers and has made it clear she expects fire remediation to be carried out at pace.

“Developers who fail to meet obligations under the Welsh Government contract could be subject to enforcement action.

“Deadlines are set as part of the mandatory monitoring requirement set out in the contract and any failure to meet those deadlines is dealt with robustly.”

As for many leaseholders and the Welsh Cladiators their demands remain the same – for the Welsh Government to bring in legislation to protect them from the cost of building safety defects and to give agreements like the building safety pact the teeth they think it lacks.

Another leaseholder who is a member of the Welsh Cladiators, Peter Larwood, told the Senedd committee towards the end of last week’s meeting: “Beginnings and starts need to put in these pacts and penalties [too].

“The only place you’re going to hurt these companies is in the pocket.”