Firms join cladding lobby

Three of the region’s property management companies have signed an open letter to Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, calling on the Government to “right the wrongs of the past” and provide more funding to remove potentially dangerous cladding from high-rise buildings.

Manchester-based Scanlans and Mainstay Group of Hyde, alongside Rendall & Rittner which has an office on Deansgate in Manchester, have become members of an “unprecedented coalition” to urge the Government to set up a “multibillion-pound emergency fund” after new industry research suggested that over 500,000 people could be living in unsafe accommodation.

The Government has set aside £200m for the remediation of Grenfell-style ACM cladding but the coalition claims that more funding is needed to remove other types of potentially dangerous cladding.

Ian Magenis, a partner at Scanlans, said: “The fall-out from the Grenfell tragedy has proved to be a difficult time for property managers, directors and leaseholders. Leaseholders are faced with having to find many thousands of pounds to resolve a situation which is not of their making.

“Unless the government decides to step in and offer assistance, it is the leaseholders who, under the terms of their leases, will have to fund the cost of the works. The government needs to tackle this urgently.”

Scanlans, Mainstay and Rendall & Rittner have contributed to the gathering momentum surrounding the issue of cladding in the region after the formation of Manchester Cladiators, a residents group set up to support those living in 12 apartment blocks with unsafe cladding.