Cladding scandal: 'Innocent people like me face the risks and costs'
One day in January 2020, NHS worker Rachael Loftus was surprised to find a man in a high visibility jacket standing outside her flat complex in Leeds.
“I thought it was strange,’’ she recalled. “I later saw another guy, who was also in hi-vis gear, sitting in a car outside the building. When I asked them what they were doing, they said they were employed as a ‘waking watch’ outside the building because of the fire risk caused by unsafe timber cladding on the building.”
According to Ms Loftus, this was the first time she had been told that the cladding on the six-storey flat complex she calls home, Timble Beck, was unsafe.
She added: “The freeholder then told the leaseholders they would have to pay for the waking watch, which was on duty for nine months, and later for a temporary alarm system which is still in place.
“These additional safety measures have cost us all individually around £15,000 over the last five years. With the support for MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), we took our freeholder Grey GR Ltd Partnership to tribunal to try and get them to do what they are supposed to and start the work to make the building safe. We won, but they have until November 2026 to make that happen.
Ms Loftus added: “I would have had more consumer protections buying a toaster than buying my flat. The years it is taking to make these buildings safe is also not good for Leeds as a city.”
Ms Loftus believes her case is a good example of why the “wishful thinking” policies of successive Ministers hasn’t yet yielded results. She added: “Part of the problem seems to be that the deregulation of the building industry has meant that those bad actors who cut corners have been getting away with it for far too long and it’s just become how they operate.
“And innocent people like me are living with the risk, the huge costs of hiked insurance and service charges, whilst my overall investment in my home is diminishing and now it’s dragged out over five years with no end in sight, it’s taking its toll.”
A spokesperson at Grey GR, said: “While we are currently progressing the remediation programme at Fearn Island Mills, (Timblebeck is part of the Fearn Island Mills development) we appreciate this is a very challenging time for leaseholders and residents.
“Grey was not involved in the development of Fearn Island Mills. Since identifying potential building safety issues, Grey has installed a common alarm system, commissioned extensive and intrusive surveys to establish the full extent of remediation works required, secured planning permission, and submitted a detailed design outlining the required remedial works to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).
“We are currently awaiting a formal determination from the BSR on our detailed plan, whose approval is a necessary prerequisite to commencing works. Regrettably, the BSR failed to provide a response before our determination date elapsed and we are still awaiting confirmation that we have a formal extension and new determination date. Across the industry, this process is taking 20 weeks from submission.”