Our statement on offering credit for leaseholders affected by building safety work costs
25 January 2021
Following coverage of offering credit to leaseholders in Inside Housing on 22 January, please see our below statement:
"There are systemic national issues that have caused problems of building safety and we don’t believe that Network Homes residents should be paying the price for putting them right. We will exhaust all possible avenues to recover funding by vigorously pursuing any organisation with potential liability for failings – this will protect the public purse, our charitable funds and leaseholders.
Failing that, and in the absence of government funding, we will have no choice but to consider recovery from leaseholders – in line with legal obligations in their lease. If it came to that our FCA licence enables us to offer interest-free credit which might make the cost more manageable. There is only a limited amount of support available from government, and for buildings below 18 metres there is no support at all.
And not every building has an insurer, warranty provider or contractor who is able to be pursued. While we continue to follow other avenues, we must have a process in place for how we could support leaseholders if these costs are passed on. We meet regularly with industry groups, Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and MPs and regularly consult (as part of the G15) on government policies and legislation.
We’ve also made the case for more support with numerous media outlets. We will continue to use all possible means to lobby government to make broad funding available to protect leaseholders from these costs."
