Further to our ongoing analysis of the revised scheme offered by the government on 30 Nov 2021, it’s quite clear that there are a significant number of very concerning issues within the proposed scheme that could:
- Stop people entering the scheme completely, for many years, due to the “damage threshold” clause.
- Delay the process for long periods due to the necessity of appeals in order to enter the scheme.
- Mean that homeowners can’t afford to access the scheme due to the fact that they’re being asked to contribute significantly towards the costs.
These are just a few of the issues that are of great concern.
Other issues include things like:
- The fact that basic remedial work remains on the list of options even though outer leaf repairs have failed on previously remediated homes.
- The fact that the standard I.S.465:2018 which is being used to assess our homes, was produced using a desk study only, with no laboratory work carried out. According to engineering experts this is nowhere near sufficient for a standard which is determining the future of tens of thousands of properties.
- The fact that it has never been categorically established that mica is causing our homes to deteriorate, full research needs to be carried out to investigate matters such as the fact that pyrite and iron sulphides are also showing up in results. This research is essential if there is any suggestion by the government that remedial options should continue to be offered to homeowners.
- The fact that none of the options currently include foundations, either in relation to testing or replacing. Due to the appearance of iron sulphides in results it is essential that foundations are included in testing to establish if they need to be replaced. Also when research is carried out, this will establish if mica and pyrite contribute to the failure of foundations.
Because of the issues above and many other areas of concern, we want to ensure that there will be no move by government to pass this scheme into legislation until these extremely serious issues have been acknowledged and dealt with.
Therefore we would like to propose to homeowners to contact the key individuals involved in the decision making process, along with their counterparts and any other relevant parties, to alert them to the fact that you, as a defective materials homeowner, are not giving your consent for this to pass into law until the issues are addressed.
A sample email and a list of email addresses is available at the link below, obviously the text at this link is just a guideline for anyone who wishes to use it and edit it accordingly.