Carla Denyer Stands Up for Bristol Residents Affected By Unsafe Cladding

Today, Carla Denyer MP for Bristol Central advocated for Bristol Central residents affected by unsafe cladding at the second reading of the Building Safety Bill in Parliament.

The full speech can be accessed on Hansard here or on Parliament TV here.

Carla recognised that the bill “includes important measures that are needed”  but also made clear that “there remain serious concerns that it doesn’t do enough for those still trapped by the terrible cladding scandal.” 

She used her speech to raise the injustice being experienced by leaseholders of flats in medium-height blocks (under 11 metres)  in Bristol Central with flammable cladding. 

Carla told the shocking story of a 97-year old woman and her two adult children stuck in an intolerable catch-22 and struggling to fund her care because of the cladding crisis.

Carla said:

“In particular, I want to raise the issue of remediation of unsafe cladding in buildings of less than 11 metres.

“There are a number of medium-height blocks of flats in Bristol Central with flammable cladding. I’m going to tell the story of just one of these flats.

“It is a mid-rise block that’s part of a development of three blocks.  The other two blocks are taller- over 11 meters. Same developer, built at the same time. All the buildings have the same dangerous cladding, and the taller two are eligible for Building Safety Fund, the one under 11 meters is not.

“A leading specialist building surveyor has identified the shorter building as also having severe cladding deficiencies in urgent need of remediation.

“Until recently, this flat was the home of a 97-year-old woman, who eventually moved into a residential home. Because she owned a flat, she was not eligible for a council-funded care home place, so her children needed to sell the flat to fund her care. Except they couldn’t.

“Because the Conservative Government’s position was that there is no systemic fire safety issue in buildings under 11 metres. In 2022, the then government said that it had examined specific buildings under 11 metres and found that “in the overwhelming majority of cases it has subsequently been confirmed that they do not require remediation”.

“The Labour government under Keir Starmer maintained this position, stating in September 2024 that “the risk to life is usually lower in buildings under 11 metres, and they are very unlikely to need the same costly remediation”.  And as a result, buildings under 11 metres are not eligible for funding under the Building Safety Fund (BSF).

“The catch? Try telling that to the mortgage market! No lender will give a mortgage to a flat in a building with unsafe cladding, regardless of height.

“So they can’t sell it on the open market. They can’t persuade the company that holds the freehold to pay for the remediations from its own balance sheet. The building’s insurance policy will also not cover the cladding work. And even if the owners of the five flats in this small block wanted to pay for the work themselves (which would be wholly unjust; it’s not their fault), as leaseholders they are only permitted to contribute up to £15,000 per flat. The work is estimated to cost over £1 million.

“So what are they meant to do?

“Trapped in an intolerable catch-22, the two adult children of this 97-year-old woman were forced to buy the flat themselves to fund her care (Lucky they could afford this! Though ‘lucky’ feels a wild choice of word to describe this situation) and are now stuck in possession of an unsafe flat they don’t live in and never wanted to own, with no recourse to the developers, insurance, warrantees or anything else to rectify cladding faults.

“Now, in July 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched a separate pot of funding to address cladding fire safety risks in buildings under 11 metres, called the Cladding Safety Scheme.

“They said this delivered on the government’s commitment in the Remediation Acceleration Plan and supported a risk-based approach to remediation. But the application window was only open for 3 months. It’s now closed.

“The management company of the building in my constituency has applied, but there has been no response, and there is apparently no guarantee of receiving this targeted funding.”

Carla continued:

“ … the Bill before us today proposes to stick with the Conservative and Starmer government’s insistence that ‘relevant buildings’ means only buildings of 11 metres or more. Surely the Minister can see that this cannot be good enough.

“So please can the Secretary of State tell me:

1. Is she confident that 3 months was long enough for 100% of those in charge of affected buildings under 11 metres to hear about it and apply? Including both for-profit management companies that famously can be very sluggish about taking action on repairs, as my inbox attests, and internal management companies made up of owner-occupiers and flat leaseholders who are often juggling flat admin alongside a full-time job and running a family
2. Is the fund large enough to cover all of the affected sub-11m buildings?
3. If the government doesn’t make funding available for all the affected sub-11m buildings, what will the Minister’s message be to the leaseholders of the flats that don’t receive the funding?
4. Please will she take steps to end this lottery of funding; ensure that the remediation of buildings below 11m is incorporated into the main bill, fully funded; and that there is a legal requirement on freeholders to do this work?”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

[1] Carla spoke at the second reading of the Building Safety Bill – more details of the bill can be found here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-12249/