On 28th April 2021, the House of Lords debated Commons Reasons and Amendments to the Fire Safety Bill. Votes were held on further amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part:
Votes: Fire Safety Bill
Tag: building safety
Fire Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans raises issue of leaseholder costs
On 27th April 2021, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Fire Safety Bill. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in the debate, raising the difficulties faced by leaseholders struggling to meet remediation costs and to sell their properties:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: Well, my Lords, here we are again. I do not want to detain your Lordships’ House for too long, because everything has been said several times already, but I want to make a few comments, if I may.
I, too, want the Bill to pass. I pay tribute to Her Majesty’s Government and the money they have already found and put on the table, which is very significant. But since we last gathered here, the sheer scale of the crisis, which is in its very early stages, is slowly beginning to unfold before us and become ever clearer. I believe that is why the majority in the other place declines each time an amendment goes back, because those long-serving, seasoned campaigners in the other place realise what is going on. The stories are coming out absolutely relentlessly, and new research is being published.
At a few minutes to four this afternoon, I received an email from someone who works in Parliament. I will call her Claire; that is not her real name, but she will know who she is, because she emailed me at 3.56 pm and asked if I will speak up. She said, “Will you speak up for the leaseholders again and table an amendment? I bought a flat under the shared ownership scheme. I own a 25% share, yet I am liable for 100% of the costs. I am already paying an additional amount each month, and I know this amount will soon increase as further remediation work takes place. I simply cannot afford to pay for the remediation works, nor should I have to. The stress of this situation is becoming intolerable. My mental and physical health are approaching a state of collapse”. “Will you speak up?”, she said. I have not met her yet—I hope she will say hello to me one day, perhaps when she guesses who I am or sees me around the place. This is someone who we bump into, who works in this place and who serves us.
Continue reading “Fire Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans raises issue of leaseholder costs”Fire Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans moves amendment protecting leaseholders and tenants from remediation costs
On 20th April 2021, the House of Lords debated responses to the Commons Reasons and Amendments on the Fire Safety Bill. The Bishop of St Albans tabled a further amendment to the bill, seeking to protect leaseholders and tenants from remediation costs being passed on by building owners:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I give notice of my intention to seek the opinion of the House when the time comes, and declare my interest as a vice-president of the LGA.
When there is a crisis, we look to Her Majesty’s Government for radical and rapid action. Ministers are good at calling stakeholders to gather around the table. Just yesterday, in the other place, Minister Oliver Dowden said he was appalled by a situation. He promised Members that they should
“be no doubt that if they cannot act, we will … We will put everything on the table to prevent this from happening … Put simply, we will review everything the Government do to support”
this. He went on:
“We will do whatever it takes.”—[Official Report, Commons, 19/4/21; col. 676.]
Continue reading “Fire Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans moves amendment protecting leaseholders and tenants from remediation costs”Coming Home Report: Bishop of Manchester speaks in debate on housing
The Bishop of Manchester took part in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s debate on the Coming Home report from the Archbishops’ Council on 24th March 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I thank my most reverend friend the Archbishop of Canterbury for sponsoring this debate. My personal interest and passion in tackling homelessness and creating good homes for the people of our nation go far beyond the interests contained in the official register, to which I draw your Lordships’ attention. Alongside those, as the noble Lord, Lord Best, has indicated, I now chair the board of governors of the Church Commissioners, as deputy to my most reverend friend. I gladly confirm to your Lordships that the board welcomes the report, and indeed I am member of the group set up by the Church charged with overseeing its implementation.
Today we have no Bill to scrutinise, no complex Marshalled List of amendments to work through; what we have is something that runs far deeper, something that should underpin and equip us for such future legislation on the matter of housing as is brought forward to your Lordships’ House to determine. The five values for housing that the Archbishops’ Commission has set before us—sustainable, safe, stable, sociable and satisfying—have been implicit in much of the work I have engaged in over the years. But now we have them encapsulated in a simple and memorable form. Not least, they recognise that a home is far more than walls, roofs, bricks, tiles, glass and mortar. A home is somewhere we can belong.
Continue reading “Coming Home Report: Bishop of Manchester speaks in debate on housing”Bishop of London asks about removal of unsafe cladding from buildings
The Bishop of London received the following written answer on 22nd March 2021:
The Lord Bishop of London asked Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that leaseholders are not required to pay for the removal of unsafe cladding from residential blocks before the Building Safety Bill 2019–2021 becomes law.
Continue reading “Bishop of London asks about removal of unsafe cladding from buildings”Fire Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans tables motion to amend bill and provide financial protection for leaseholders
On 17ht March 2021, the Bishop of St Albans moved a motion to amend to the Fire Safety Bill which would protect leaseholders from costs incurred in replacing flammable cladding:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I speak to Motion C1 and Amendments 4B to 4E. I give notice of my intention to seek the opinion of the House when the time comes. I declare my interest in the register in that I, too, am a vice-president of the Local Government Association.
I first thank the honourable Members for Stevenage and for Southampton, Itchen, who originally prepared these amendments, as well as the signatories from all parties when they were tabled in the Commons. I also thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London, who joins me in supporting it, and pay tribute to one of our colleagues, the Bishop of Kensington, who has worked very closely on the ground with victims of Grenfell and leaseholders.
Continue reading “Fire Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans tables motion to amend bill and provide financial protection for leaseholders”Bishop of Newcastle asks about effects of unsafe cladding on leaseholders
The Bishop of Newcastle asked a question on the effects of removal requirements for unsafe cladding on leaseholders on 22nd February 2021, following a government statement on building safety in the aftermath of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire:
The Lord Bishop of Newcastle [V]: My Lords, many leaseholders in high-rise and medium-rise buildings are currently receiving insurance premium quotes for many times the previous annual cost. Much of the additional premium is a consequence not of cladding directly but of wider concerns regarding fire risk in their building, so removing and replacing deficient cladding will not in itself return premiums to a level of normality. Can the Minister tell us of any plans to make the representatives of leaseholders and the insurance industry agree a joint approach to alleviating this unacceptable burden?
Continue reading “Bishop of Newcastle asks about effects of unsafe cladding on leaseholders”
The Church of England in Parliament 
You must be logged in to post a comment.