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CaCHE research on the building safety crisis influencing policy debates

The Building Safety Bill is currently working through Parliament and is in its final stages at the House of Lords this month. Among other reforms arising from post-Grenfell concerns relating to building safety, amendments to the Bill seek to achieve better protection for leaseholders from the cost of remediation work to buildings affected by the building safety crisis, or ‘cladding scandal’.

Our research into the mental wellbeing impacts of living with building safety problems found that leaseholders experienced widespread and significant mental harms. There were a number of different drivers of these harms, from fears about the safety of the building, to financial stress and loss of control over key life decisions. Achieving certainty over the protection of leaseholders from paying for remediation works, through legislative guarantees, is a key way in which negative wellbeing impacts can be reduced.

Following our research – which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council – we applied for additional funding from Research England to produce a series of briefings aimed at policymakers. These briefings, listed below, highlight some of the wider effects of the building safety crisis on leaseholders in all types of buildings, and their wider family and friendship networks. They underscore the need for equitable, guaranteed protection from costs of remediation works, a risk-based approach to remediation, and extended Government support to ensure that – where required – buildings are remediated so that leaseholders can move on with their lives.

Briefing 1: A new and enduring public health crisis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Briefing 2: Ripple effect – family, politics, housing markets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Briefing 3: Levelling down life chances

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date: March 21, 2022 11:12 am

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