John Baron MP disagrees with Government in cladding votes

MP: Government has made much progress, but more work remains

Yesterday the House of Commons considered Lords Amendments to the Building Safety Bill. Some amendments dealt with the issue of fire safety and the exorbitant costs that some leaseholders are currently required to pay to fix fire safety defects, such as cladding, for which they were not responsible. John Baron MP has been working with other MPs to ensure that leaseholders do not have to cover the costs of fixing problems not of their own making.

The two issues that John disagreed with the Government on were whether to reduce the leaseholder contributions to fix fire safety defects to zero (rather than the Government’s proposals of a cap of £10,000 or £15,000 for London); and whether to extend exemptions for leaseholders from fixing fire safety defects to buildings of all heights (rather than those of 11 metres in height or more).

John said,

“The Government deserves great credit for making large strides in the right direction, and the Building Safety Bill puts leaseholders in a much better position than they are in at the moment. I will therefore be supporting the Bill as a whole.”

“However, I still believe that we can go further to ensure that leaseholders are not liable to fix problems that were not of their making. Accordingly, I did not back the Government’s proposals to introduce a £10,000 or £15,000 cap, believing leaseholders should not be liable whatsoever, or the Government proposal to limit exemption for fixing fire safety defects to buildings 11 metres or higher, believing the exemptions should apply to buildings of all heights.”