Bridgend Council’s Cabinet will be asked to give the green light for officers to submit a detailed business plan to fix damage to properties caused by the Caerau insulation scandal (pdf).
Bridgend Council were given until the end of February to submit a full business case following a provisional funding agreement. It’ll be up to the Welsh Government to give final approval.
The recently-announced funding agreement – subject to the business case – would see the Welsh Government contribute around £2.65million
In the report due to be discussed next week, the Chief Executive of Bridgend Council, Mark Shephard, says BCBC will contribute an additional £855,000 on top of that (as things stand). This money will come out of the council’s reserves.
That means the total sum of money available will be just over £3.5million. This is a massive increase on a previous estimate that repairs would cost around £1million.
Due to inflation, material costs etc. the overall cost of capital schemes has increased more generally. The working assumption is that the cost to repair each of the affected properties would now be at least £30,000 (compared to £16-20,000 in previous estimates).
Some properties may need less extensive repairs than others (depending on surveys) while some householders may decline to take part.
There are also hopes (perhaps faint) that discussions between the Welsh and UK governments could result in the UK’s ECO scheme providing some funding towards it.
