Taylor Wimpey sets aside £125m to support cladding issues and fire safety improvement works for leaseholders
Taylor Wimpey is a FTSE 100 housebuilder
(PA)Taylor Wimpey has set aside £125 million in funding to support fire safety improvement works for leaseholders in a number of apartments.
The FTSE 100 housebuilder gave the update as it posted 2020 results that showed the start of the pandemic dented sales, but there was a high customer demand later in the year.
On the latest funding, chief executive Pete Redfern said the funding is to “support fire safety improvement works to bring Taylor Wimpey apartment buildings constructed in the last 20 years up to the recently updated current RICS EWS1 guidance”.
The boss said: “We have taken this decision in order to provide certainty for customers and leaseholders and to avoid them bearing the cost of investment to ensure their buildings are safe.”
Numerous flat owners have been facing huge bills for fire-safety improvements after the tragic Grenfell blaze in 2017.
Last month the government said it would will fully fund the cost of replacing unsafe cladding for all leaseholders in residential buildings 18 metres (six storeys) and over in England, as part of a new plan.
For lower-rise buildings there will be a new scheme offered to those in buildings between 11-18 metres.This will pay for cladding removal – where it is needed – through a long-term, low interest, government-backed financing arrangement.
Taylor Wimpey today said its £125 million provision to fund fire safety improvements, will be used to make apartment buildings safe and mortgageable.
For buildings the firm owns, it will both fund and oversee the improvement of apartment buildings, regardless of eligibility for the UK Government Building Safety Fund, including apartment buildings below 18 metres.
If Taylor Wimpey no longer owns the building and it is not eligible for the government’s fund, the company will look to contribute funding to help.
More to follow...
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