When ministers launched a £1 billion fund last year to replace dangerous cladding, Nathan Prescott thought he had been saved from financial disaster. 

But his hope turned to despair when he found out his building would not qualify for support – because vital repairs had already begun. 

Mr Prescott is one of 98 leaseholders at Skyline Central 1, a luxury apartment block in Manchester, who are paying up to £27,000 each to cover the costs themselves. 

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in unsafe flats face paying life-changing sums to fix serious safety defects identified in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire (Stock image)

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in unsafe flats face paying life-changing sums to fix serious safety defects identified in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire (Stock image)

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in unsafe flats face paying life-changing sums to fix serious safety defects identified in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire (Stock image)

The 44-year-old has already been forced to move out because he can’t afford the bills and says homeowners are being ‘punished’ for getting on with the job at hand. 

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in unsafe flats face paying life-changing sums to fix serious safety defects identified in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017. 

Just 202 out of an estimated 11,760 dangerous buildings have been fixed, and experts believe work will take another ten years to complete at the current rate. 

Families trapped in unsafe flats are still waiting for funds to be released — but the vast majority are set to miss out altogether because of shortfalls in government support. 

Ministers have set aside a total of £1.6billion to fund remediation work but MPs estimate the overall cost will be closer to £15billion. 

The current pot excludes thousands of unsafe buildings because only those over a certain height and with particular types of defect are covered. But Skyline leaseholders are thought to be the only group to be denied cash because repairs started too soon. 

Trapped by costs of up to £27,000 

Flat-owner Anna Ortega

Flat-owner Anna Ortega

Flat-owner Anna Ortega

Anna Ortega says she is trapped in her flat for the next four years because she can’t afford to pay off a loan for vital repairs. The 31-year-old (pictured) bought her apartment at Skyline Central 1 in Manchester for £175,000 in 2015. In 2019, work began to remove cladding similar to that on Grenfell Tower. 

Leaseholders are liable to pay for repairs and were told by their freeholder that they could pay costs of up to £27,000 each over a five-year period, interest free. But when they accepted, they didn’t realise it would later exclude them from a government fund announced in March last year, which bars buildings where work has already begun. It means Skyline leaseholders won’t receive a penny, even though their building is covered in the same type of cladding as others that will get funds. 

To make matters worse, flat owners can sell their properties only if they pay off the rest of their cladding repair loan in one lump sum. Miss Ortega wants to sell up and move in with her boyfriend but says she now can’t afford to. The town planner is paying £320 a month for remediation work on top of her normal service charge. Together the bills account for half her income. ‘It’s completely draining,’ she said. ‘When we first found out about the costs, I was anxious about paying them. The funding decision is just another kick in the teeth. It makes no sense.’

The most recent government fund was announced last March but excludes buildings where work had already begun. The Mail is calling on ministers to fix the scandal within 18 months and spare leaseholders the crippling financial burdens. 

We are demanding that necessary funding is made available as soon as possible, as work cannot begin in earnest until it does. In 2019, leaseholders at Skyline were asked by their freeholder, Adriatic Land, to choose between accepting liability for the remediation costs or potentially losing their homes. 

Pursuing the developer was not an option because it had gone bust and there was no funding available at the time that covered the type of cladding on their building. 

Safety sums that make no sense

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners could miss out on funding to fix safety defects in their flats due to shortfalls in government support. Ministers have set aside £1.6billion to fund repairs but MPs estimate the total cost will be about £15billion. The funding is limited to replacing dangerous cladding on buildings above 60ft (18metres) high. 

But hundreds of apartment blocks in England and Wales have fire safety defects other than unsafe cladding, while there are some 77,500 buildings between 11 and 18 metres high in England alone. There are two government funds: a £600 million pot for replacement of Grenfell-style aluminium composite material (ACM) and a £1 billion pot to replace non-ACM cladding. 

Remediation of ACM cladding has largely been funded by the private sector or Government, but the scale of the non-ACM problem is much larger. The average cost of remediation is £1.7 million per building, according to the Greater London Authority, so the pot would cover only about 600 blocks. There have already been 2,820 applications, of which just 294 have been approved. It is operating on a first-come, first-served basis, so 1,700 high-risk buildings can’t be prioritised. The deadline for applications has been extended until June 31 but work cannot begin until funds are released. 

So leaseholders agreed to pay over a five-year period, interest free, which meant vital repair work could begin. When the £1 billion fund was announced last year that did cover their cladding, residents at first thought they had been spared the cost. 

But their hopes were crushed when they realised the criteria barred buildings where work had already been planned or started. They sought a judicial review last August but this was rejected by a High Court judge. 

Aviation worker Mr Prescott has been forced to move out because he lost his job during the pandemic and can’t afford his monthly £309 cladding bill. He is now living with his partner and renting out his flat, which he bought for £175,000 in 2016. 

He said: ‘I was so excited when I bought it. It was listed as a luxury build, with a swimming pool, gym and sauna. Now I’d give it all up just to have something safe. 

‘As far as I’m aware, we are the only people in the country who have been punished in this way. To be denied funding because work had already started is another perfect example of just how unfair this scandal is.’ 

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is facing mounting pressure to fix the crisis after the Mail’s campaign received backing from MPs of all parties, including 16 Tory backbenchers. A spokesman for Homeground, the acting agent for Adriatic Land, says the Government’s decision to deny funding to Skyline is ‘extremely misconceived and unfair’. 

He added: ‘Leaseholders should not be penalised as a result of proactive work that was carried out to keep them safe. ‘If funding from the Government had been made available earlier, or buildings like Skyline not been unfairly excluded from funding, then none of this would have happened.’ 

A government spokesman said: ‘The purpose of the Building Safety Fund is to speed up the removal and replacement of cladding on buildings where the work has not already started. 

‘We are considering options to fund future remediation work and we will provide an update in due course.’ 

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