Anger at £147 compensation for elderly tenants in cladding debacle

Elderly residents at a council tower block in South Bristol who have spent two freezing winters without insulation cladding will be paid just £147 compensation for extra heating costs. The amount per household at Gilton House over-60s high rise in Brislington, which was revealed at a Bristol City Council meeting, has been criticised as being nowhere near the additional amount tenants and leaseholders have had to fork out to stay warm.

Back in January, former mayor Marvin Rees’sLabour cabinet approved a £150,000 fund for residents across the city whose blocks are undergoing fire safety refurbishment works to replace flammable cladding. The project at Gilton House started in July 2022 when scaffolding went up but it was hit by a series of long delays.

In a written reply to a question by tenants’ association chairman Nigel Varley, housing officers said: “The amount of discretionary payment is £147 per household. Payments will be made as soon as administrative arrangements are made; this is likely to be later in the autumn.

“It has taken a considerable amount of work to finalise the arrangements for administering the scheme as we’ve had to take several factors into account. This scheme is not a compensation scheme, and therefore is not intended to offset any specific increase in costs which may have been experienced as part of planned improvements to our stock.

“Multiple factors contributed to the increase in costs associated with heating. This is a goodwill payment for residents affected by the costs of cladding removal and will be paid for the 2024/25 financial year only.”

Speaking at the homes and housing delivery policy committee meeting, Mr Varley said: “£147 goes absolutely nowhere near covering what it’s cost us in extra heating, certainly at Gilton House. My bills are £500 to £600 extra for two winters without insulation.

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“Where has this £147 come from? How is it worked out? No one talked to us about what our real costs are.

“You’re covering yourselves by saying It’s not compensation, it’s an ex-gratia payment out of goodwill. In other words it’s charity.

“If you expect us to doff our caps to the squire and say ‘Thank you very much’, I don’t know. This is an important decision that affects, and will affect in the future, hundreds of tenants who are not going to get any payment for extra heating costs over the 10-year programme.

“It hasn’t come to this committee. It seems to have been made by officers who opposed a payment right from the start. With an important decision like this, which is going to cost hundreds and hundreds of tenants a lot of money, what is the democratic process?”

Committee chairman Cllr Barry Parsons (Green, Easton) replied: “The decision to include a discretionary payment scheme in the budget, which was approved by full council earlier this year, is the point at which this decision was made in a democratic forum. The amount of the individual payments is derived from that £150,000, so that’s the amount of money we had available.”

Bristol City Council head of business development in housing and landlord services Miles Tilling told the meeting on Friday, September 20: “The £147 payment has been determined from the properties that have been completed as part of the cladding scheme. This is what we are describing as old or compromised external wall insulation systems which have been removed prematurely due to concerns about fire performance, and divided by £150,000.

“Those are properties that are due to be completed up to the end of the financial year 2024/25.”