Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS and Cardiff
Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Rhys Taylor addressing building saftey
campaigners.
The announcement given by Environment Minister Julie James
MS confirmed that 9 property developers have now signed up to the Welsh
Government’s “Developers Pact” agreeing in theory their responsibility to
remediate buildings they constructed with safety defects.
The announcement follows a lengthy campaign by leaseholders
in the five years since the Grenfell Tower Disaster.
However, three major developers are still yet to reply.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have stated that due to the
Welsh Government’s failure to work with the UK Government on the Building
Safety Act, they are left with little to no options to deal with the property
developers who have refused to come to the table and sign up to the agreement
meaning that it could be another three years until the equivalent legislation
comes into effect.
It is also not clear from the Welsh Government’s
announcement whether they intend to adopt the UK Government Building Safety Act
in full or move ahead with their own act.
Commenting Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS
said:
“I am of course glad to finally see some movement from
Labour on this issue. I particularly welcome that the Welsh Government has
listened to the Liberal Democrats calls to name and shame the property
developers for not agreeing to carry out remediation work and to reimburse
survey work carried out by leaseholders which is something we had really been
pushing for.
“However there remain a number of significant gaps in the
announcement today. Due to the lack of legislation in Wales, those homeowners
in properties that were built by property developers refusing to engage with
the process are effectively being asked to sit tight and wait after 5 years of
already doing just that.
“As an interim measure, we would like to see the three
developers refusing to engage barred from any work contracted by the Welsh
Government or local authorities in Wales.
“We also don’t have an answer to what will be done about
all the money victims have had to spend on waking watches, extortionate service
charges and in many cases court cases against developers over the last few
years while the Welsh Government failed to act. We want to see this reimbursed.
“Overall communication from the Welsh Government to the
victims continues to be extremely poor. Victims and managing agents have spent
the morning finding out by drip feed from the Welsh Government press releases
rather than the Welsh Government engaging with them directly. This has been a
feature throughout the ordeal, with the Welsh Government not engaging directly
with victims or including them in discussions about resolutions.
“I and the Welsh Liberal Democrats are committed to
securing the answers to the questions left by today’s announcement and will
keep holding Labour to account to ensure victims of this scandal receive the
justice they deserve.”
ENDS
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