Agenda item

This Council believes it is a scandal that hundreds of private leaseholders in Leeds still live in high rise flats with dangerous cladding, despite it now being over 3 years since the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.  

Council believes it is unfair that many residents who bought their properties in good faith now face both the immediate cost of having to fund waking watches, as well as not knowing whether they will one day wake up to a financially crippling bill from their building owner for remedial works.  This is in addition to the increased impact on the mental wellbeing of individuals held to ransom in this way at a time of steadily rising unemployment.

Council believes it is time for firm action from the Government rather than continued broken promises, to avoid a repeat of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  Council therefore expresses its support for the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign and calls on the Government to lead a national effort and provide the funding to remove all dangerous cladding from all buildings by June 2022 at the latest, with the prioritisation of those blocks most at risk.

It was moved by Councillor Coupar, seconded by Councillor Wray that this Council believes it is a scandal that hundreds of private leaseholders in Leeds still live in high rise flats with dangerous cladding, despite it now being over 3 years since the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.  

Council believes it is unfair that many residents who bought their properties in good faith now face both the immediate cost of having to fund waking watches, as well as not knowing whether they will one day wake up to a financially crippling bill from their building owner for remedial works.  This is in addition to the increased impact on the mental wellbeing of individuals held to ransom in this way at a time of steadily rising unemployment.

Council believes it is time for firm action from the Government rather than continued broken promises, to avoid a repeat of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  Council therefore expresses its support for the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign and calls on the Government to lead a national effort and provide the funding to remove all dangerous cladding from all buildings by June 2022 at the latest, with the prioritisation of those blocks most at risk.

An amendment was moved by Councillor Bentley, seconded by Councillor Campbell

In third paragraph remove all after “tragedy” and replace with:

“Council therefore supports the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign’s ten step plan to tackle this mounting crisis, particularly step 3 that proposes the Government should provide money up front and then seek to recover it from any responsible parties or via a temporary levy on development”

Revised motion will read:

This Council believes it is a scandal that hundreds of private leaseholders in Leeds still live in high rise flats with dangerous cladding, despite it now being over 3 years since the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.

Council believes it is unfair that many residents who bought their properties in good faith now face both the immediate cost of having to fund waking watches, as well as not knowing whether they will one day wake up to a financially crippling bill from their building owner for remedial works.  This is in addition to the increased impact on the mental wellbeing of individuals held to ransom in this way at a time of steadily rising unemployment.

Council believes it is time for firm action from the Government rather than continued broken promises, to avoid a repeat of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.Council therefore supports the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign’s ten step plan to tackle this mounting crisis, particularly step 3 that proposes the Government should provide money up front and then seek to recover it from any responsible parties or via a temporary levy on development.

A second amendment was moved by Councillor B Anderson, seconded by Councillor Harrand

Delete all after “This Council believes it is” and replace with the following:

“not acceptable that affected private leaseholders in Leeds are still living in high rise flats with dangerous cladding, despite it now being over 3 years since the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.  

“Council believes it is inequitable that many residents who bought their properties in good faith now face a number of potentially financially crippling bills from their building owner for remedial works.  

“Council welcomes the Government’s announcement that it would provide £1 billion in 2020 to 2021 to support the remediation of unsafe non-ACM cladding on residential buildings in both the private and social housing sectors, but acknowledges that more work is needed.

“This Council believes it is time for leadership from the Council and Central Government working in true partnership to avoid a repeat of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Council therefore expresses its support for the affected residents and calls on the Council Leader to use her position on the LGA to lead the Local Government case to finding a funding solution to remove all dangerous cladding from all buildings by a date to be agreed by the LGA. The LGA solution should be fully costed and reflect the roles and responsibilities of both this Council, the LGA and the Government in resolving this unacceptable position. Council further agrees that the blocks most at risk should be prioritised first. This solution should incorporate any initial findings or suggestions from the Grenfell Inquiry even if they have not formed part of any official report or comment.”

The amendments in the name of Councillor Bentley and Councillor B Anderson were declared lost and upon being put to the vote it was

RESOLVED – That This Council believes it is a scandal that hundreds of private leaseholders in Leeds still live in high rise flats with dangerous cladding, despite it now being over 3 years since the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.  

Council believes it is unfair that many residents who bought their properties in good faith now face both the immediate cost of having to fund waking watches, as well as not knowing whether they will one day wake up to a financially crippling bill from their building owner for remedial works.  This is in addition to the increased impact on the mental wellbeing of individuals held to ransom in this way at a time of steadily rising unemployment.

Council believes it is time for firm action from the Government rather than continued broken promises, to avoid a repeat of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  Council therefore expresses its support for the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign and calls on the Government to lead a national effort and provide the funding to remove all dangerous cladding from all buildings by June 2022 at the latest, with the prioritisation of those blocks most at risk.