Sarah Walters, a mother of two who is facing a £50,000 fire safety bill on a property that she paid £88,000 for a share of, broke down in tears when she spoke to the Guardian about the impact of Wednesday night’s vote in parliament not to protect all leaseholders from fire safety costs.
Her grandfather had given her a small inheritance to place a deposit on the home in south-east London, and now, because the property was built with potentially flammable cladding and missing fire breaks, its value had gone.
Hers is just one of numerous stories of severe disruption to lives and damage to mental health caused by the building safety crisis. The fallout from parliament’s decision to leave hundreds of thousands of leaseholders facing bills to fix fire safety defects looks likely to affect the way people vote in next week’s local elections. The Conservative party, which – aside from around 30 rebels – opposed attempts to protect more leaseholders, and Labour, which abstained in a crucial Lords vote despite challenging the government in the Commons, look set to lose some support.
“It breaks my heart,” said Walters, who asked for a pseudonym to be used in this article. “This was his [her grandfather’s] legacy to me and [it seems] he worked for nothing. We haven’t done anything wrong and I don’t know why we are being treated like this. I am on antidepressants as a direct result of the stress and anxiety this has caused.”
The home Walters shares with her husband, a key worker, and two young children is in a building that is measured at just under 18 metres tall. That means the owners will not be able to access the £5bn government fund already agreed to fix tall buildings with fire safety problems such as combustible cladding and missing fire breaks. If it had been slightly taller, her problems would be all but over. But buildings under 18 metres will only qualify for loans, and Walters feels bitterly let down by politicians.
“We have elections next week and we can’t vote through the Tories, and Labour have stuffed us through the back door. Who do I vote for? No one cares for us. It’s heartbreaking.”
Zoe Bartley, 28, who lives in a block under 18 metres in Chelmsford, has decided she will support the Liberal Democrats as the party’s representatives in the House of Lords voted to protect all leaseholders from costs that MPs have estimated could reach £15bn.
She is expecting a bill well in excess of £10,000 to fix high-pressure laminate cladding, insulation and wooden balconies on a shared ownership flat, 30% of which she bought for £57,000 six months before the Grenfell Tower fire.
“We are really disappointed that [the government] promised that leaseholders shouldn’t pay, but they don’t have any intention of keeping to their word,” she said.
Bartley lives with her partner, and his two children from a previous relationship stay over sometimes. She is pregnant with her first child and they all share a one-bedroom flat, meaning space is tight. She said they felt “stuck”.
“We don’t have an option,” she said. “We can’t sell it, we can’t sublet it and we can’t afford to rent or buy a second property.”
Paul Afshar, 37, a technology company employee who lives in the low-rise Ducketts Apartments building in Tower Hamlets, east London, felt similarly “bitterly disappointed” on Thursday morning. “I am really worried about how I am going to meet the financial costs,” he said.
His building is wrapped in timber cladding awaiting safety assessment. He spent £50,000 buying a 25% share of the home, and said he faces a bill equal to that investment. He said people were having “sleepless night worrying about crippling financial bills”.
“If you are stuck in a flat or a building like this, your whole life is on hold,” he said. “People are worried sick about it and the people who caused this in the first place aren’t being made to pay. What the government needs to do is get the developers with deep pockets to stump up the cash. It’s well within the government’s ability to underwrite this, pay the costs and claim them back.”
