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People affected by the cladding scandal have received “zero” support from the Welsh Government while being “ripped off” by a combined £13,000 a week, a committee heard.

Peter Larwood, from the Welsh Cladiators campaign, gave evidence to an inquiry on building safety prompted by the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire disaster in which 72 people lost their lives.

Asked about support from the Welsh Government, he told the Senedd’s housing committee: “What has the government done for us? Nothing, end of.”

Mr Larwood, a leaseholder at the Victoria Wharf development in Cardiff Bay, told Senedd Members: “The amount of money that’s spent in different directions, be it the airport, 20mph, the Welsh language – there are numbers you can put to that.

“If I say to you, ‘how much has the Welsh Government spent on where we are?’. Think of it, zero, there’s no money spent in supporting us in what we are doing.”

‘A tragic place to be’

The 75-year-old, who had retired, said: “For the past eight years now, I have been banging my head against the wall because that’s all I seem to be doing. I’m now to the point where I am so tired, so angry that we had to do it and no one else helps us.

“We are alone, it’s a tragic place to be. People’s lives have been put on hold.”

Mr Larwood, who worked in countering fraud, theft and malpractice, said: “It’s a real case to answer for the builders… and everyone who’s attached to them.”

He told Senedd Members that work has – just – started at Victoria Wharf, with the aim of completion by 2029 but delays are already jeopardising this proposed end date.

He criticised “completely unenforceable” pacts signed between the Welsh Government and developers which have seen ministers “take no action at all to hold people to account”.

“Excuses given and excuses accepted,” he said. “In the meantime, we in Victoria Wharf have the fun of paying £13,000 a week in total for the estate.”

‘Taken for a ride’

Mr Larwood said his service charges total about £5,000 a year for a two-bedroom flat: “We are being ripped off – there’s no help, yet we see money being spent elsewhere.”

Giving evidence on September 18, he told the committee people are living with noise, dust and a lack of privacy with each building entirely wrapped for at least a year. He said: “Our reward is the building being put right… no compensation, nothing.”

Mr Larwood said residents paid to fix compartmentation issues, only to later find the work was carried out incorrectly and needs to be redone.

He raised a recent issue with the roof on one building, leaving residents potentially facing a £3,000 bill each. “Those builders took us for a ride,” he said.

Mr Larwood added: “I’m tired, fed up, broke – literally – and the likelihood is there’s going to be a lot more bills coming my way for stuff that was nothing to do with me.”

‘Toxic industry’

He accused building control services of abdicating responsibility, with Taylor Wimpey “allowed to do the surveys themselves”, saying: “There’s no comeback on the bad boys, the comeback is only on us that are fighting for our lives.”

Mark Thomas, also from the Welsh Cladiators, said: “We’ve moved from an unresolved fire cladding crisis to then a building safety crisis and we now have a remediation crisis.

“Innocent citizens are being left negotiating highly complex contracts with a toxic industry that continues to show little good faith and operates at a snail’s pace.”

He said victims have little confidence in the Welsh Government’s “light-touch” approach to the crisis, telling the inquiry “frankly it’s failed miserably”.

Warning only four buildings out of 161 in the private sector in Wales have been remediated, Mr Thomas, a leaseholder in the Celestia building in Cardiff Bay, added: “The lack of priority and urgency is causing huge distress and concern.”