EWS1 Form

Léonie Cooper AM moved, and Andrew Dismore AM seconded, the following motion:

"The Assembly recognises the increasing distress faced by leaseholders and tenants in buildings where EWS1 forms are being demanded by banks, lenders and estate agents in order to sell an affected property, grant a mortgage or a re-mortgage.

This Assembly welcomes the 10 steps promoted by the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign, including robust targets and urgent government action to address the remediation of buildings found to be dangerous. There are currently 430 tall buildings requiring waking watches in London due to fire safety concerns; and the Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee recently heard from the London Fire Brigade Commissioner that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government estimates up to 72,000 buildings in London are potentially at high risk, impacting on many thousands of Londoners.

Estimates by London’s housing associations suggest that the cost of remediation in their properties alone will be £4 billion. Whilst the Assembly welcomes the £1.6 billion provided by Government towards the remediation of dangerous cladding in buildings of all types of tenure across the UK, it is clear that this is nowhere near sufficient to make all affected buildings safe.

This Assembly notes that obtaining EWS1 forms is the duty of freeholders and takes far too long, with estimates running into years because of insufficient numbers of chartered fire safety inspectors nationwide, many of whom are unable to acquire the professional indemnity insurance that would allow them to sign off EWS1 forms.

The demand for EWS1 Forms has also been significantly increased due to the Government’s ill advised consultation on extending the need for such forms to buildings over 11 metres, not just 18 metres as originally proposed. This has contributed to the backlog of inspections, slowing down the pace of remediation and making many leaseholders ‘mortgage prisoners’, legally obliged to accept escalating service charges for temporary fire precautions and spiralling building insurance costs whilst also facing valuations of zero equity for their properties. This has caused many leaseholders to suffer financial, personal and emotional strain resulting in profound mental health problems.

The Assembly calls on the Mayor to write urgently to the Minister for Building Safety and Communities asking him to intervene urgently to address the crisis facing leaseholders, including ensuring the availability of affordable professional indemnity insurance for fire safety inspectors to enable them to conduct surveys for EWS1 forms; and to act to increase the numbers of inspectors . The Assembly also calls on the Mayor to lobby the Government to increase the funds available for remediation works and to plug the loopholes in the schemes, so that all residents who are victims of the cladding and other inadequate fire precautions scandals do not face unaffordable service charge bills and can live safely in their own homes.”

Following debate and upon being put to a vote, the motion was agreed unanimously.