Boris Johnson has denied the idea that flats with cladding are unsafe, as he dodged a request to meet the victim of the scandal exposed by the Grenfell Tower disaster.
The prime minister was challenged at PMQs about government action to support people facing huge repair costs on homes covered in cladding deemed unsafe.
Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central, asked Mr Johnson if he would meet with a constituent who was initially evacuated from her flat over safety concerns – and now has to pay £5,500 for “waking watch” security on the cladded building.
Mr Johnson replied: “What people should be doing is making sure that we do not unnecessarily undermine the confidence of the market … Because they’re not unsafe. Many millions of homes are not unsafe. And he should have the courage to say so.”
The prime minister also told the Labour MP he had “every sympathy with his constituent,” adding: “What I think is unfair is that people such as her are placed in a position of unnecessary anxiety about their homes, when they should be reassured.”
Mr Johnson added: “I sympathise deeply with people have to play for waking watches and other such things. I think it is absurd.”
The Labour MP had raised the concerns of his constituent Jenni Garratt, who lives in a building in Sheffield where residents were forced to leave their flats until 24-hour warden.
“The work needed to make her building safe is being blocked by the actions her freeholder,” said Mr Blomfield. “She doesn’t know the cost of the work she’ll face – but it’s estimated at thousands of pounds.”
More than four years after the Grenfell Tower fire, thousands of leaseholders across Britain facing huge bills for the cost of remedial works, hiked insurance charges, 24-hour wardens as well as feeling trapped in flats which are now unsellable.
In February this year, the government announced a £3.5bn Building Safety Fund was launched to remove dangerous cladding from buildings taller than 18 metres.
Ministers also announced a loan scheme that saw leaseholders offered long-term, low-interest loans to remove combustible cladding from buildings between 11 metres and 18 metres tall.
But campaigners say the schemes have not enough to support everyone affected, and do not cover all the crippling costs for building safety expenses. Many are still waiting to hear if the Building Safety Fund will cover remedial work.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced at his recent Budget that the government has decided to charge property developers with profits over £25m at a rate of 4 per cent to help fund more removal of unsafe cladding from high-rise buildings.
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has said new housing secretary Michael Gove was “looking afresh” at the issue to ensure “everything was being done to protect and support those affected”.
