Malcolm Cameron-Lee thought he was doing the right thing when he decided to invest his lifesavings into property twenty years ago to fund a comfortable retirement.
At the time, “pension schemes were being mismanaged” and, as an electrical contractor, he believed “the way things were working it was better to fend for yourself”.
But the dream of home ownership has turned into a nightmare because of the long-running cladding scandal that has left the 58-year-old “penniless and about to go bankrupt”.
“We’ve been stitched up for so long and now it’s ruined me,” he told Sky News.
Malcolm bought nine small rental flats in Salford’s City Link development between 2007-8, for around £80,000 each.
But now they are effectively valued at £0 because of defects found in checks required after the Grenfell Tower fire.
The issues include flammable cladding, insulation, wooden balconies, and missing fire doors – with banks unwilling to take the risk of lending on the properties until they are made safe.
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The works have been estimated to cost £33,000 per flat.
While ministers have repeatedly said that leaseholders should not pay for the mistakes of developers in the wake of Grenfell, which exposed a widespread building safety scandal, Malcolm is one of many who does not currently qualify for support.
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‘We’ll force developers to fix unsafe buildings’
The protections announced in last year’s Building Safety Act exclude buy-to-let landlords who own more than three properties – so-called “non-qualifying leaseholders”.
People in this group can be liable to pay for cladding remediation and are also shut out from a protective cap on expensive non-cladding costs.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove previously said the exclusion was because he did not want to support those with “significant means” to pay for remediation themselves.
But Malcolm accused the government of “discriminating against leaseholders who have grafted all their lives and saved hard to fund our own retirements”.
Having worked as an electrical contractor for 40 years, the income from the rent on the flats was his savings to put towards his pension.
But those savings have run dry because of the “spiralling costs” of maintaining the properties.
Malcolm has had to pay “extortionate” amounts for interim safety measures such as a waking watch and new fire alarm system, the latter costing him about £1,200 per flat.
Image: The Grenfell Tower block in west London was destroyed in a fire that killed 72 people
His annual service charge has more than doubled from £900 to £2,100 while his building insurance is expected to shoot up by 42% this year.
This is on top of rising mortgage rates which have caused his payments to soar from £20,000 to £55,000 in the last year.
Malcolm is effectively hostage to these terms because the safety issues mean “the properties are valued at nothing, so there is no chance of being able to re-mortgage or sell”.
And he fears being stuck for many more years because there is no timeline for when the remediation will be complete.
Since the issues came to light the developer of Malcolm’s 17-metre high block has dissolved and filed under a new name.
Rendall and Rittner, who now manage the City Link development, told Sky News they are “working towards a resolution” and indicated they will seek funding for the cladding removal from the government’s medium-rise scheme for where developers can’t be traced.
The Department for Housing also insisted Malcolm would benefit from this scheme, despite his non-qualifying status, when contacted for comment.
“I can’t carry on, I have lost all my money,” he said.
“I am down to my last pennies, and I am going to file for bankruptcy beginning of May.
“I will lose the flats which were my income while I was retraining as something else. I will lose my home that I live in with my wife and I will lose my pension.
“I am normally very positive, but this has left me feeling broken. If I wasn’t married, I’d be on the street.”
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But the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign (EOCS) said there is more to be done, and Malcolm’s “desperate story spells out the unfairness of the supposedly protective legislation that the government has devised, which has limited the help that is on offer”.
The campaign group estimates there are thousands of non-qualifying leaseholders excluded from protections in the Building Safety Act. As well as landlords with multiple properties, the group includes those in low-rise buildings below 11 metres.
Campaigners fear the dividing line will have a ripple effect on remediation, with works delayed or unable to go ahead if non-qualifying flat owners can’t pay.
Giles Grover, a spokesperson for the group, said: “The government has known about Malcolm’s circumstances for over a year, but has done nothing and there are many other non-qualifying leaseholders in the same situation – how many more ordinary people must have their lives ruined before Mr Gove, Mr Sunak and Chancellor Hunt will be moved to change course?”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the US over its “weak” response to lethal Russian attacks on his hometown on Friday.
President Zelenskyy posted a lengthy and emotional statement on X about Russia’s strikes on Kryvyi Rih, which killed 19 people.
Meanwhile Ukrainian drones hit an explosives factory in Russia’s Samara region in an overnight strike, a member of Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters.
In his post, President Zelenskyy accused the United States of being “afraid” to name-check Russia in its comment on the attack.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people – and such a weak reaction,” he wrote on X.
“They are even afraid to say the word “Russian” when talking about the missile that killed children.”
America’s ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink had written on X: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih.
“More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end.”
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Strike on Zelenskyy’s home city
President Zelenskyy went on in his post to say: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.
“We must not be afraid to put pressure on the only one who continues this war and ignores all the world’s proposals to end it. We must put pressure on Russia, which chooses to kill children instead of a ceasefire.”
Grandmother ‘burned to death in her home’
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defense council, said the missile attack, followed by a drone attack, had killed 19 people, including nine children.
“The Iskander-M missile strike with cluster munitions at the children’s playground in the residential area, to make the shrapnel fly further apart, killed 18 people.
“One grandmother was burnt to death in her house after Shahed’s direct hit.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck a military gathering in a restaurant – an assertion rebutted by the Ukrainian military as misinformation.
“The missile hit right on the street – around ordinary houses, a playground, shops, a restaurant,” President Zelenskyy wrote.
Mr Zelenskyy also detailed the child victims of the attack including “Konstantin, who will be 16 forever” and “Arina, who will also be 7 forever”.
The UK’s chief of the defence staff Sir Tony Radakin said he had met the Ukrainian leader on Friday, along with French armed forces leader General Thierry Burkhard.
“Britain and France are coming together & Europe is stepping up in a way that is real & substantial, with 200 planners from 30 nations working to strengthen Ukraine’s long term security,” Sir Tony wrote.
The IDF has admitted to mistakenly identifying a convoy of aid workers as a threat – following the emergence of a video which proved their ambulances were clearly marked when Israeli troops opened fire on them.
The bodies of 15 aid workers – including eight medics working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – were found in a “mass grave” after the incident, according to the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jonathan Whittall.
The Israeli military originally claimed an investigation found the vehicles did not have any headlights or emergency signals and were therefore targeted as they looked “suspicious”.
But video footage obtained by the PRCS, and verified by Sky News, showed the ambulances and a fire vehicle clearly marked with flashing red lights.
In a briefing from the IDF, they said the ambulances arrived in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah shortly after a Hamas police vehicle drove through.
Image: Palestinians mourning the medics after their bodies were recovered. Pic: Reuters
An IDF surveillance aircraft was watching the movement of the ambulances and notified troops on the ground. The IDF said it will not be releasing that footage.
When the ambulances arrived, the soldiers opened fire, thinking the medics were a threat, according to the IDF.
The soldiers were surprised by the convoy stopping on the road and several people getting out quickly and running, the IDF claimed, adding the soldiers were unaware the suspects were in fact unarmed medics.
An Israeli military official would not say how far away troops were when they fired on the vehicles.
The IDF acknowledged that its statement claiming that the ambulances had their lights off was incorrect, and was based on the testimony from the soldiers in the incident.
The newly emerged video footage showed that the ambulances were clearly identifiable and had their lights on, the IDF said.
The IDF added that there will be a re-investigation to look into this discrepancy.
Image: The clip is filmed through a vehicle windscreen – with three red light vehicles visible in front
Addressing the fact the aid workers’ bodies were buried in a mass grave, the IDF said in its briefing this is an approved and regular practice to prevent wild dogs and other animals from eating the corpses.
The IDF could not explain why the ambulances were also buried.
The IDF said six of the 15 people killed were linked to Hamas, but revealed no detail to support the claim.
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Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
The newly emerged footage of the incident was discovered on a phone belonging to one of the workers who was killed, PRCS president Dr Younis Al Khatib said.
“His phone was found with his body and he recorded the whole event,” he said. “His last words before being shot, ‘Forgive me, mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives’.”
Sky News used an aftermath video and satellite imagery to verify the location and timing of the newly emerged footage of the incident.
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Aid worker attacks increasing
It was filmed on 23 March north of Rafah and shows a convoy of marked ambulances and a fire-fighting vehicle travelling south along a road towards the city centre. All the vehicles visible in the convoy have their flashing lights on.
The footage was filmed early in the morning, with a satellite image seen by Sky News taken at 9.48am local time on the same day showing a group of vehicles bunched together off the road.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.