A WHITEFIELD resident has expressed outrage after being told he had to pay £30,000 for remediation of his city centre flat.

Gary Soar, says he was told his flat at Cypress Place, in the Green Quarter, Manchester, had cladding, similar to that of Grenfell Tower, by the building’s freeholder company, Pemberstone.

This was finished in May 2020, but Mr Soar was told by a fire engineer further remediation was needed for the building.

Gary has made an application to the government’s Building Safety Fund, which currently available to support cladding remediation costs for buildings over £18m.

But the fund does not cover other fire safety defects such as balcony cladding, so his application will likely be unsuccessful.

Mr Soar said: “It’s a nightmare for me and my family and I am waiting for someone to help us and really need some funding for this £30,000 because I can’t afford to pay. This very much feels like a daily thing that sits over you, it’s debilitating over the level of stress it causes, and reduces my wife to tears.

“I’m lucky that I’ve been able to rent a house in Whitefield, but there are a lot of others who haven’t been as fortunate.”

He hopes a philanthropist wil step in and help him and other Cypress Place residents.

A spokesman for Pemberstone said ‘ACM’ and ‘Trespa’ was removed at Cypress Place 18 months ago and fire safety engineers confirmed this met safety standards.

But subsequent government regulations focused on other external walling types, including Kingspan products, he added.

This company’s cladding did have a relevant safety certificate but this was withdrawn by the firm in 2020 amid issues over manufacturing and testing processes, he said.

The spokesman added: “This creates an unsatisfactory situation where fire engineers have not been prepared to confirm any walls containing these products are satisfactory, although their use was widespread.

“The omission of some cavity barriers was agreed between the design and construction team and Manchester City Council’s building control department around 2006, many years before we acquired the freehold of the properties. However, the current view of fire engineers is that this is not satisfactory.

“We have applied to the Government’s Building Safety Fund and are going through the relevant processes. While we hope funding for the work will be forthcoming the grant funding is discretionary and, even if successful, there may be certain work that is required which will not qualify for financial assistance.”