Northpoint cladding: MP slams treasury as residents warn they are still living in fear

Bob Neill, MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, wrote a letter last week to the treasury criticising the pace of making dangerous buildings safe.

In Bromley, homeowners at Northpoint in Sherman Road have been sick with stress over the deadly cladding lining their 10-storey building.

In a letter to Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury ,and housing secretary James Brokenshire, Mr Neill shared his disappointment.

The letter followed a parliamentary question from Mr Neil asking whether the government would provide funding to leaseholders to remove dangerous cladding.

He pointed out that there is no legal means to enforce building owners to pay for the work, with the government saying previously it expects private owners to “do the right thing”.

Mr Neill wrote to Ms Truss: “You will not be surprised to read that I was disappointed by the answers.

“I believe they demonstrated a worrying complacency in the Treasury on this issue and failed to recognise the urgency of the situation facing residents of Northpoint block of flats in my constituency, not to mention the thousands of other leaseholders like them around the country.

MORE - Northpoint tower residents in Bromley North face huge cladding costs

“As you will be aware the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced in November that it would empower local authorities to carry out emergency work to replace cladding and charge the owners, but to date no councils have felt able to intervene due to the financial risk involved.

“It has become clear that the Government has no levers at its disposal to legally compel building owners to pay for the work. This is why I believe the onus now regrettably falls on central government to support this affected.”

Residents are paying £5k each a week for a compulsory 24/7 waking watch, and face bills upwards of £70k to make Northpoint safe – an unachievable figure for near enough all 57 flats – with the clock is ticking for the building to be brought up to scratch.

London Fire Brigade has put an enforcement notice on the building, meaning it has until April to fix internal issues such as fire doors and the alarm system or it can be condemned.

Taylor Wimpey, the developer which sold the freehold in 2007, told our local democracy reporter it has no responsibility or ownership for the building. Citistead, the current freeholder, is holding back, putting responsibility with the government.

MORE - Northpoint cladding: Bromley Council has had 'no promises' over costs

Graham Snewin, 67 and a resident in Northpoint, told the local democracy reporting service: “Nothing is moving. It’s all well and good the treasury banging the same drum about expectations not to be passed on to lesseesbut our freeholder has said that it’s toothless. It’s very easy to say, but there are no powers to stop it.

“They have to put their hands in their pockets and sort this out otherwise it will just drag on for years and that is what all the signs are saying.

“Finance and safety are two pretty major issues in peoples lives and it is dragging people down now.

“It’s pressing on people. You forget that this building is so unsafe, when I watch footage of Grenfell it’s very emotional. That is footage of people dying and that could be us.

“We are all living day to day trying to manage financially. If the costs get passed onto us then we are homeless and bankrupt.

“The council are doing the best they can, but this was dumped on them. Their hands are tied.”

Councils have the power to carry out work and bill building owners, but there currently is no legal guarantee that the costs would be recovered.