Fire Safety: Rejected protection hammer blow to leaseholders. Safety fund inadequate for up to 2 million homes

Tonight Parliament rejected Lords Amendment Four to the Fire Safety Bill, which would prohibit the owner of a building from passing on any remediation costs to leaseholders and tenants. This followed a debate on several related amendments. Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper said:

"Liberal Democrats shamed the Conservative government into allowing a proper and meaningful debate on these amendments. For them to now reject this vital protection is a hammer blow to leaseholders, who now face the prospect of financial ruin, trapped in unsafe homes.

"Fire safety campaigners fought side by side with our MPs and Peers in Parliament to make one thing clear: leaseholders should not have to foot the bill to make their homes safe from the risk of fire.

"The Conservative's woefully inadequate safety fund doesn't address cladding on an estimated 2 million homes under 18 metres, nor the many other fire safety defects in countless other blocks of any height.

"But the fight is not over. Liberal Democrats will continue the campaign to ensure leaseholders will not be held responsible for the defective and dangerous construction by developers."

Lords Amendment 4 was to insert the following new Clause-
"Prohibition on passing remediation costs on to leaseholders and tenants
(1) The owner of a building may not pass the costs of any remedial work
attributable to the provisions of this Act on to leaseholders or tenants of
that building.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a leaseholder who is also the owner or part
owner of the freehold of the building."