High-rise repairs: Housing Secretary responds to question from ITV Calendar's survey

The Housing and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has responded to questions about ITV Calendar's survey on people dealing with the costs of high-rise repairs in Yorkshire for the first time.

Mr Jenrick was shown a question from Jenni Garratt, a leaseholder in Sheffield, who faces huge costs to deal with fire-safety issues on her apartment building.

Jenni said: "The building, like thousands of buildings across the country, also has other fire safety problems that are completely unfunded at the moment, but do require essential remediation.

"I'm potentially on the hook to pay tens of thousands of pounds just as a single leaseholder, I'm a first time buyer, I'm 24 years old, how am I supposed to pay for that?"

Mr Jenrick said: "Well without knowing the particular details of that building it does sound like the building safety fund will be there to help her, so the five billion pound sum is enough to remove all the unsafe cladding from high rise buildings in this country, so that will do the job which is to make sure high rise buildings are safe."

When asked if he could guarantee if Jenni wouldn't have to pay for other fire-safety issues with the building Mr Jenrick replied: "Well she won't have to pay for the cladding because either the developer will have to pay for that or the taxpayer.

"If there are other issues with the building like the need to change a fire door for example, then in the first instance obviously you should go back to the people who built this building who made those mistakes in the first place."

Jenni said that he "didn't understand the issue" - the developer of her building dissolved themselves after completing the work.

She added: "There is no recourse for me because the developer has washed his hands of it and now Robert Jenrick, who is genuinely responsible for fixing this problem, is trying to wash his hands of it as well."

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