Thread by @Lees_Martina

thetimes.co.uk/article/buildi…

This is a partial victory for @EOCS_Official leaseholders (and @thesundaytimes campaign to help them) but comes with a big caveat: good luck with making the companies pay unless the government forces them thetimes.co.uk/article/why-di…

Operation Apex will trace corporate webs of SPVs that obscure #buildingsafetyscandal liability and also identify "egregious behaviour where freeholders have sought to aggressively pass on costs to innocent leaseholders", leaked papers show

Gove's leaked Commons speech reveal there will be a review of government schemes to ensure “commercial consequences” for companies responsible for the #buildingsafetycsandal, in line with how Rydon Homes, linked to #Grenfell, was last month suspended from Help to Buy

Of more than 1,000 tall blocks with fire risks analysed by Operation Apex, 43% belong to one of 14 corporate groups that “make significant profits and own those buildings as part of a commercial strategy”

Another 10% are owned by “one of five large, very active developers” that likely built them, and which made £1.2 billion in post-tax profits last year alone. One plans to return £3.3 billion to shareholders over the next four years, the document said

“The work has uncovered clear evidence of defective work in many properties,” leaked Apex papers say. It will find who can pay more for repairs

Gove will tomorrow withdraw the consolidated advice note that paralysed the market in newbuild flats. He will say it has been "wrongly interpreted". It will be replaced with “new proportionate guidance” - that's PAS 9980 - for assessors from the BSI

(The draft PAS 9980 caused some blocks to fail EWS1-type checks in the same way as before so RICS last month said it won't change advice to surveyors. We'll have to see if banks, insurers and RICS buy the final PAS 9980 or it could make things worse) thetimes.co.uk/article/new-bu…

Gove will call developers in for a meeting in the next few weeks. “We will give them the chance to do the right thing. I hope that they will take it… If they do not, then we will look to impose a solution upon them in law,” his draft speech for tomorrow says

There is nothing yet to say what the legal change could be, and whether it could take elements from the polluter pays scheme drawn up by trapped leaseholders, which Gove's department is still looking at

Gove will extend the time limit for leaseholders to sue builders over defects from 6 to 30 years (up from the 15 years already announced), under changes to the Building Safety Bill

To limit unnecessary work, a government scheme to indemnify fire engineers will kick in before Easter. The government will audit surveys “to make sure that expensive remediation is only being advised where it is necessary to remove a threat to life”, Gove is due to say

The building safety fund will also test work for proportionality. These measures are very much needed and will keep bills down for leaseholders and taxpayers. There is too much profiteering going on

Gove's draft speech confirms he is scrapping cladding loans for flats in 11-18m blocks. Instead there will be up to £4m in grants for mid-rise cladding only (not other fire risks)

There are finer details that will help many, eg shared-ownership leaseholders with cladding bills will be allowed to rent out their flats. (Some who have had to move to pay two sets of housing costs)

Also there is £27m more for fire alarms, on top of the £30m in the 'waking watch relief fund'

Finally we have a housing secretary that gets this scandal. The language in the draft speech is strikingly strong:

These measures will help but the industry won't pay for its part in the scandal unless they are forced to. Just 10 builders personally pocketed more money since #Grenfell (£708m) than the £643m their companies set aside to fix fire risks thetimes.co.uk/article/claddi…

Also the new money pays for cladding but not other fire risks that make up a third of the typical bill. Still more to fight for

The government is spinning this as the fault of industry, which is half the truth. #Grenfell inquiry evidence shows the government knew yet covered up systemic failures over many years - they have yet to admit that thetimes.co.uk/article/claddi…