Plan to fix building fire safety defects in Wales announced

A scheme to tackle fire safety defects in medium and high-rise residential buildings in Wales has been unveiled.

Interest free loans will be available to developers as part of a deal which Welsh minister say will make people "safe and secure in their homes".

All major developers have now signed up to the legal agreement to fix unsafe apartment blocks across Wales.

The Welsh government will also pay for 28 buildings where a developer is unknown or has ceased trading.

Interest free loans will be available to developers as part of the deal.

The announcement was made in the Senedd by Climate Change minister Julie James, as part of the Welsh government's co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru.

Following the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy in west London, in which 72 people died, a number of apartments blocks in Wales were found to have fire safety defects.

Work fixing defects on many of these blocks is yet to be carried out, and there have been rows over who should pay.

Many homeowners have been left unable to sell their flats, and also paying higher insurance and service charge fees.

Ms James said it was an "ambitious programme" that would make residents feel "safe and secure in their homes".

She confirmed that major developers had agreed to sign a legally binding pact that commits them to carry out fire safety works on medium and high-rise buildings across Wales.

Redrow, Lovell, Vistry, Countryside, Persimmon, McCarthy Stone have signed the agreement, she said, while Taylor-Wimpey, Crest Nicholson and Barratt had confirmed they intended to sign.

The Welsh government also committed to step in and carry out remediation work in an initial cohort of 28 privately owned "orphan buildings", where a developer is unknown or has ceased trading.

The minister said this work would minimise fire safety risks "as quickly as possible".

She said the developers who have signed up to the scheme could access interest-free loans to help with the work through a new £20m Welsh Building Safety Developer Loan Scheme.

These loans would be repayable over five years and the buildings need to be 11 metres or more in height.

Welsh Conservative climate change spokeswoman, Janet Finch-Saunders, raised concerns about developers who said they intended to sign the agreement but had not yet done so.

"Intent to sign is not worth the paper it isn't written on," she told the minister. "What steps are you taking to ensure that they sign up, and quickly?"

Ms James said the companies in question needed permission to sign from holding company boards.

"We have letters saying that they intend to sign, and it is actually worth the paper it's written on," she said.

"I do expect them to sign formally, very shortly, but they do have to go through a board process in order to do that."

While welcoming the ministers' statement "very warmly", Plaid Cymru's Mabon ap Gwynfor said "the truth is that until the remedial work has been completed to make these buildings safe, the residents will continue to live in fear".

"When can we expect to reach a point where every building will be safe for residents without them, or the owners, having to pay for the work," he asked Ms James.

The minister stressed that it was in developers' interests to get the work done.

"Let's face it, their reputation is trashed, and actually they're quite anxious to get their reputations backs," she added.