Michael Gove has accused the Railways Pension Scheme of failing to fix “life-critical” fire risks at ten buildings it owns with dangerous cladding.
Residents at properties owned by Railpen have been issued with demands for as much as £200,000 per flat to pay for remedial work to their properties while some have moved out because of the acute risk of fire.
In a letter to the £37bn fund the levelling-up secretary said it was making residents “suffer”, adding that he was “severely disappointed” at its failure to take responsibility for its “duties” towards leaseholders and the “oversight and governance” of its board.
The scheme bought the ten properties in 2018 as a long-term investment with a guaranteed income from ground rent. The company that originally developed the buildings has since gone into administration.
In a separate letter to the publisher of the trade publications Investment Week and Professional Pensions, Gove called on them to disqualify Railpen from the UK pensions awards.
He said it was deeply inappropriate that Railpen had been shortlisted as “real estate manager of the year”.
