Building safety and government advice
The safety of our customers is our priority. In this section you can find out more about our building safety programme, the government's response to Grenfell Tower, EWS1 forms and some of the issues that have come about as an indirect result, particularly those affecting leaseholders and people wishing to purchase flats.
Government action
Residents may be aware of statements made by the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP on 9 January 2022 regarding his proposed plans to enforce “polluter pays” legislation to ensure that developers pay for the removal of cladding material on buildings of 11-18 metres in height.
Once details of any available funding for lower-rise buildings are confirmed, we will ensure that all appropriate applications are made to any funds that become available, and will update residents in individual buildings in due course.
The government has launched a new portal for tracking in-process applications to the Building Safety Fund. To access this portal, residents will need a secure PIN code, which we will send to you once we have received it from the Fund authorities. If your building is managed by an external managing agent (EMA), we will have contacted the agent to request this information, and will send it to residents as soon as it is available.
Our activity
As a responsible landlord, we have an ongoing programme in place to check our buildings and carry out any work required to ensure that our buildings comply with the government guidance. We are making applications to the Government’s Building Safety Fund for all eligible buildings. This fund is intended to cover the costs of works related to fixing defects in the external wall system. Read more
Costs
In August 2022, the then Southern Housing Group, now merged into Southern Housing, announced that we would not seek to recharge residents and leaseholders for building safety defects as defined by the Building Safety Act 2022. Some costs for building safety maintenance, such as cyclical replacement of fire doors and alarm systems may continue to be recharged to leaseholders under the terms of their individual service charge agreements.
