A successful Liberal Democrat amendment will force developers to take financial responsibility for unsafe buildings and ensure the Grenfell-style cladding row in Manchester is never repeated.
Lib Dem Councillor Richard Kilpatrick has successfully changed an amendment, which will shift the financial responsibility of recladding away from residents and leaseholders to the buildings’ original developers.
In 2018, Lendlease, which reported pre-tax profits of $1.2 billion a year earlier, was embroiled in a Grenfell-style cladding row in Manchester for over a year when Labour awarded the company a £330 million contract to refurbish Manchester Town Hall, despite opposition from the Lib Dems.
Lib Dems said Lendlease should never again be awarded a council contract until they pay for renovations on their unsafe developments.
The row continued until the corporate giant finally gave in and agreed to pay for recladding.
A Lib Dem spokesperson for Manchester Councillor, Richard Kilpatrick, said: “Developers in Manchester have been avoiding responsibility and passing on the costs to local people. It is crippling residents and leaving many with the choice of either facing bankruptcy or selling their home for next to nothing.
“We will ban these outrageous costs and force them to take responsibility, whether they like it or not. But we also want to introduce a register to ensure homes receive a fire safety rating to secure desperately needed accountability and transparency.
“Too many people have too often pledged to ensure a tragedy such as Grenfell never happens again, but not enough people are taking real action.”
