Residential property firm Centrick has become one of the first in the Midlands to secure remuneration as part of the government’s cladding £1 billion building safety fund.

Receiving £400,000 on behalf of its client – a 227-unit development in Birmingham – the money will cover the costs of replacing the building’s cladding to updated safety specifications, as well as recovering legal, professional and survey fees for the leaseholders.

This comes as Apropos, a UK lettings firm, called for the ‘cladding disgrace’ to be resolved as quickly as possible.

The grant secured will be put directly into replacing the external façade of the building with Euroclass A-rated materials, removing the current render and insulation, and installing non-combustible alternatives. What’s more, it will see £15,000 recouped and returned to the building’s service charge account, reducing any overall deficit incurred.

In negotiating the funding, Centrick has saved around £3,200 per unit for the building’s leaseholders and has ensured that they will incur no additional charges to obtain their ESW1.

Work is set to complete in early February – more than a month ahead of the government’s March 31 deadline. This means that an EWS1 will be eligible for all leaseholders by the end of March, unlocking their ability to re-mortgage, sell, and obtain reduced insurance premiums.

Phil Johns, group managing director at Centrick, comments: “This is a huge step for the region in the ongoing effort to ensure that all buildings are brought up to the new safety standards under the latest government advice, and we are proud to be amongst the first to be successful in securing it.”

“The team here at Centrick has been tireless in its determination to receive fair remuneration for the leaseholders of this development, as well as our other clients, and we’re so pleased to be able to have achieved this for them today.”

Once registration for the fund opened in July 2020, the Centrick team submitted its first application within one hour. It spent the moments following further negotiating on behalf of the building’s leaseholders, landlords and tenants; all while continuing to consult with fire engineers, contractors and surveyors to ensure all documentation was in place while the registration process went ahead.

Johns adds: “It’s been a long and arduous process and the £1 billion pledged by the government is only going to stretch so far. The building safety fund is awarded on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis, and whilst we are pleased to report that Centrick began submitting all applications within a week of it opening, meaning we’re expecting to see more funding for our clients before the end of December, for many leaseholders across the country, this limited spend will leave them without compensation.”