The video discusses the challenges faced by homeowners and leaseholders in the UK due to stringent fire safety regulations on buildings with cladding, following the Grenville Tower disaster in 2017. It highlights the struggles of individuals like Helen Truman, who are unable to sell their properties because of the requirement for a cladding certificate (EWS1 form), which is critical for securing a mortgage. This demand has left many people feeling trapped and limited in their life choices due to unsellable properties.

The problem is compounded by a shortage of qualified fire engineers able to carry out the necessary fire safety surveys, creating a growing crisis for homeowners and mortgage lenders. The video features perspectives from industry experts, fire engineers, leaseholders like Emma Byrne, and Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who is spearheading parliamentary efforts to address the issue. They underline the need for government intervention and a more pragmatic approach to resolve the deadlock and prevent further financial burden on homeowners.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. milestones [ˈmaɪlˌstoʊnz] - (n.) - Significant events or points in time that show progress or development in a particular process or journey. - Synonyms: (milestone, landmark, turning point)

For 24 year old Helen Truman, buying her first flat in Bristol with her boyfriend was one of life's milestones.

2. remediation [rɪˌmiːdiˈeɪʃən] - (n.) - The action of reversing or stopping environmental damage. - Synonyms: (correction, rectification, amendment)

They said that they're providing 1.6 billion pounds to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding and protect leaseholders from significant remediation costs.

3. devastating [ˈdɛvəˌsteɪtɪŋ] - (adj.) - Extremely destructive or damaging; causing severe shock or dismay. - Synonyms: (overwhelming, catastrophic, ruinous)

I can't emphasize how devastating it is, actually.

4. intrusive [ɪnˈtruːsɪv] - (adj.) - Causing disruption or annoyance through unwanted behavior or presence. - Synonyms: (invasive, obtrusive, unwelcome)

I still have to have this test, I still have to have an invasive survey.

5. insisting [ɪnˈsɪstɪŋ] - (v.) - Demanding something forcefully, not allowing refusal. - Synonyms: (demanding, pressing, persisting)

From my understanding, it's the mortgage companies who are effectively reading this led reading the forms wrong and insisting on criteria that the government says they shouldn't be dealing with.

6. procedure [prəˈsiːdʒər] - (n.) - An established or official way of doing something. - Synonyms: (method, process, system)

Or is it about bureaucracy and procedure, particularly in the mortgage industry?

7. equivalent [ɪˈkwɪvələnt] - (adj.) - Equal in value, amount, function, meaning, etc. - Synonyms: (comparable, analogous, equal)

A spokesman told us, we do not support a blanket approach to the use of the EWS one forms and where owners are able to demonstrate their buildings are safe using other equivalent evidence, we would encourage lenders to accept that for valuation purposes

8. gordian knot [ˈɡɔːrdiən nɒt] - (n.) - A complex or unsolvable problem. - Synonyms: (dilemma, conundrum, puzzle)

In terms of setting out a sort of roadmap, it's clearly a bit of a gordian, not of a problem.

9. relayed [ˈriːleɪd] - (v.) - Communicated or passed on information, messages. - Synonyms: (conveyed, transmitted, communicated)

The communication is lax, but then they have a lot of buildings that are being relayed with this.

10. ensured [ɪnˈʃʊrd] - (v.) - Made certain that something will occur or be the case. - Synonyms: (guaranteed, secured, assured)

and the surveyors who can do this work, who are insured.

600,000 leaseholders unable to sell homes with cladding - BBC Newsnight

For 24 year old Helen Truman, buying her first flat in Bristol with her boyfriend was one of life's milestones. But it's time for them to move on. We'd like to move out into sort of more the countryside area, buy a bigger house with a garden, have children, get married. The things that you'd like to do at my age. Helen's dad died recently and she needs to move closer to her mom. But selling has become a nightmare. After the Grenville Tower disaster of 2017, new regulations were developed for all tall buildings with any kind of cladding, not just the specific type. At Grenville, increasingly, mortgage lenders are asking for a fire inspection report by an expert if a buyer is to obtain a mortgage. Helen had a buyer earlier this year, but the sale fell through because there was no cladding certificate called an EWS one. This was not because the building was thought to pose any risk, it was simply because the development had cladding. It's unlike anything that either of us have had to deal with in our lives. It's all I think about. I think, I eat, sleep, think about cladding. It's just knowing, because we can't sell it, we haven't got that freedom and control. Flammable cladding at Grenville Tower was blamed for the rapid spread of fire, a disaster that killed 72 people.

Now, all buildings judged to be at risk have to have their own separate fire safety surveys, and there are thought to be more than half a million of these in the UK. But the Chartered Association of Building Engineers told Newsnight there are just two to 300 professional fire engineers capable or qualified to do this kind of survey work. This is one. Jamie Davis is an experienced fire engineer. We showed him Helen's building. I suppose the simple question is, is it dangerous or is it not dangerous? It's not a question you can easily answer from a photograph. Unfortunately, we would need further information. We'd need to understand the actual construction of the external wall. Jamie Davis thinks some mortgage lenders might be asking for the cladding safety form, the EWS one, unnecessarily. Do you think the lenders are being unduly cautious about this? We've heard reports of them even insisting on the EWS one form to be filled in for terraced houses, for example. I think the original intention of the form was good, it was well intended. But in my experience, it is being interpreted in a way that it's almost a tick box.

To achieve a mortgage effectively, many properties that need checking are partly owned and managed by housing associations. All of the work that we do. We spoke to the body that represents housing associations. It believes a crisis is looming and it needs urgent attention from the government. This could be a massive problem. It could potentially be a big problem. And what we're seeing is an increase in the number of requests for additional information from mortgage providers as more people try to sell their properties. The only way really that it's going to be resolved is with additional support from government in the form of government funding. So this is a fast emerging issue which could affect hundreds of thousands of people. Some leaseholders have set up online campaign groups. They say 600,000 to 900,000 people could be affected. I think as people go to remortgage or go to move, I think people will realize how much it's going to affect them. I think a lot of people don't realize it affects them yet. It's sort of coming out now.

You're putting quite a brave face on this, but I can imagine this as being amazingly stressful. It's the unknown that we have no control. We can't make our own decisions about our lives. We can't worried about financial burden for maybe like 10-20 years to come because we can't sell it and we don't know what's going to happen with the property. We just sort of, we're sort of stuck and we can't move on with our lives. Clearly, lessons from Grenville must be learned, but hundreds of thousands of leaseholders could be trapped, unable to sell their homes. Richard Watson reporting.

We asked the ministry of housing communities and local government for a response to his piece. A spokesman told us, we do not support a blanket approach to the use of the EWS one forms and where owners are able to demonstrate their buildings are safe using other equivalent evidence, we would encourage lenders to accept that for valuation purposes. They said that they're providing 1.6 billion pounds to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding and protect leaseholders from significant remediation costs. Anne said building owners must take swift action to remediate their buildings.

So joining us now are Emma Byrne, who lives in an affected block of flats. She's also a writer for the Spectator, and Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who is co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on leasehold reform. Welcome to you both. Emma, look, let's start with you. You live in one of these affected buildings. For viewers who perhaps just don't get this, what's to stop you just selling up and leaving everything? I currently live in a one bed shared ownership flat which does not yet have this form. It means that I absolutely can't sell. I can't remortgage my property as well. I am effectively trapped until I get this form. Right. And presumably any buyer who you might want to interest in your flat is not going to be able to get a mortgage.

Absolutely. I mean, that's already happening to neighbors of mine. A neighbour of mine has already bought another home outside London that's gone through absolutely fine. But his buyer's mortgage has failed, so ultimately he's now paying two mortgages. Right. Well, what does that do to people like you and your neighbors? I mean, to your life, to your plans, in a sense, your life plans. I can't emphasize how devastating it is, actually. It's the uncertainty, the idea that you, especially with so many unknowns happening at the moment with COVID and there's nowhere to turn. I'm not going to be able to sell my property, but also the idea that I have cladding on my building, that I don't know if it's safe yet. I still have to have this test, I still have to have an invasive survey. It keeps you awake at night. You can never fully concentrate.

Right, well, let's bring in Sir Peter Bottomley. I mean, you've heard about the problems here from people living like Emirate with this. Do you think this is essentially a safety problem, as it appears on the surface to be? Or is it about bureaucracy and procedure, particularly in the mortgage industry? It's all three, but it's also slavery. People like, they can't take the jobs they want. They're stuck. Government, besides singing, and you should make sure that ends, I would say data owners. Emma is a leaseholder rather than owner. They have responsibility with the finance industry, the mortgage lenders, and with the survey, sort this out. Very, very, yes.

I'm sorry, your sound is a little intermittent. I'll ask you another question in the hope that it clears up, but if it doesn't, well, we'll cut away. We'll cut back to Emma for a moment there. Do you have any sense, Peter Bottomley, how many people are actually in this situation? I think that the number of people involved, between 600,000 and a million. I think that the number of surveyors who can do this work, who are insured, is probably between 300 or whatever. I think that government have known about the problem since January of this year and they have so far not found the way of getting it solved. The owners, that's the landlords, and the surveyors and the insurance companies and the mortgage companies have responsibility to solve this for the near a million people who may be affected now or in the very near future.

Well, what about the point made in the government statement to us that because of this issue, as you said, about the limited number of surveyors and the EWS, one form that freeholders can go for, an equivalent form of safety certification, that they can take the initiative, is that possible? Do you think? It's possible? The all-party group, which I co-chair with members of other parties and with the help of the campaigning charity leasedhold Knowledge Partnership and the National Leasehold Campaign and others can bring people together, but it shouldn't be left to us.

The government can make up for what hasn't happened yet, which is have a roundtable and treat this as seriously as they treated the flood insurance where someone's brought in. And I add another point where people clearly need to sell and not be able to get the market price because of this problem, I think government should set up a trust or an agency the way they did with the banks to buy the properties. And when the procedural problems, the EWS one, which is the external fire review system and BS 8414 and the other British standard, are resolved, they can sell them at market price, but do not leave ordinary innocent people at the bottom of the housing pile, left stuck, enslaved to homes which may not be safe and at presently unsaleable.

Okay, let me put a couple of those points to Emma then. Does that sound like a good plan to you? The one that Peter Bottomley just sketched out, in which effectively there's a government guarantee scheme on this. It's an interesting idea. I mean, there are kind of two-fold problems with what's happening at the moment, which is that you have a series of people who are trapped in homes which are actually safe as well, because mortgage lenders are asking about for guarantees of buildings that don't have cladding, etcetera. But you also have the other group of us who do have dangerous buildings as potentially dangerous items on their building. And this is going to take years potentially to resolve. It's not like you get the form and it ends. This could potentially be like years and years of remedial work, extra costs and the financial hit that that's going to bring to us as well.

What about the point in that government, look, your freeholder can take the initiative, they don't have to have this full the external war form that was talked about in Richard's film. They can get an equivalent do you think your freeholder could be doing more to resolve this? So my freeholder is my housing association. The communication is lax, but then they have a lot of buildings that are being covered with this. From my understanding, it's the mortgage companies who are effectively reading this led reading the forms wrong and insisting on criteria that the government says they shouldn't be dealing with. So, Peter Bosnia, let me just bring it back to you finally, because we're almost out of time now in terms of setting out a sort of roadmap, it's clearly a bit of a gordian, not of a problem. Between inspection mortgage lenders, possible government guarantees, what's your starting point for getting out of this mess? People should take up what the all-party group, with the help of Nissan's partnership, have been campaigning for. Get people together. Each of the boards of the banks and the building societies should say, our corporate governance responsibility is to solve this.

The royal surveyors should solve it. The insurance companies who look after the surveyors, professional insurance should solve it. And government, they've helped a lot with the 1.6 billion. They just solved this problem too, to get the housing market moving. It's only fair, it's necessary and it's urgent.

Peter Bottom, Lee, Emma Byrne, thank you both very much.

Economics, Leadership, Politics, Cladding Crisis, Housing Market, Fire Safety, Bbc Newsnight