Ruth warns over Government in action on Building Safety Crisis

Submitted by admin on

Speaking in Parliament last week Ruth Cadbury MP warned the Government that the Building Safety crisis was not fixed, and called for urgent action to ensure that leaseholders and residents were protected from unfair and large bills.

In her speech Ruth said that many of her constituents were ‘living in fear’ because of the crisis, while facing ‘life-changing bills that can ruin them’ and which have stopped them from being able to sell their homes. Ruth also warned that recent action from the Government was ‘too little, too late’ and that there were a number of flaws in the Governments support program, such as the failure to tackle high building insurance costs or non-cladding related problems in flats - such as faulty insultation or firebreaks.

Ruth also criticised the Government for its failure to make personal evacuation plans mandatory in buildings at risk from fire. Ruth spoke about the experience of a disabled constituent and warned the Government they should not leave it to private companies to decide where to put these plans in place.

Finally Ruth spoke about the Governments ongoing failure to tackle the housing crisis, particularly for residents living in private rented accommodation. Ruth warned that the Government had no plan and said ‘‘after 12 long years in power, it is clear that the Government still have no real plan to fix the housing crisis, no plan to end the injustice facing leaseholders and no plan to ensure that we build good, high-quality, truly affordable homes.’’

Commenting in full after her speech Ruth said,

‘‘Hundreds of residents across Hounslow have had their lives ruined by the building safety crisis. Leaseholders are still facing huge bills to fix problems they did not cause, and many are unable to sell their homes- leaving them trapped. There are simply too many gaps in the Governments approach and residents locally are stuck in limbo waiting for action from the Government. It’s also disgraceful that the Government are letting down residents with disabilities by failing to ensure that buildings have evacuation plans.

It's been 5 years since the horrific fire at Grenfell, yet it’s clear that the Government have not acted with enough speed or urgency on the building safety crisis.

I know from listening to people locally that they want truly affordable high quality safe housing. Yet after 12 years in power the Government have failed to fix the crisis facing leaseholders and have failed to tackle the housing crisis.’’

Campaign & News tags