Paul Ridge, head of our Housing and Property team, has been interviewed by the Evening Standard in relation to his ongoing case fighting the Government, on behalf of 600 leaseholders, in the ‘cladding scandal’.

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, many leaseholders in various apartment blocks around London discovered that their buildings were also clad in flammable materials, and that it was down to them to fund any replacements.

Speaking on the matter, Paul commented:

Leaseholders are the most innocent parties in this. They did not design [the buildings] they did not commission [the buildings], yet they are the cash cows who are supposed to pay for it.

Paul and his team are experts in this area. A current focus of much of their work is enforcing fire safety measures in residential buildings. Since 2019, the team have been helping several large residents’ groups bring fire safety claims against the freeholders and developers of their buildings, requiring the replacement of unsafe cladding, insulation, and cavity barriers, and claiming significant payments of damages. They have provided comment to the BBC on the proposed Building Safety Bill, and are currently acting in the ongoing Grenfell Tower Inquiry, representing a number of residents and families that have been granted core participant status in the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. 

Read the full Evening Standard article here.