BRIDGEND councillors have been told that there is no guarantee of compensation for residents affected by shoddy insulation work done 10 years ago.

Opposition councillors slammed the Council for its part in poorly executed work carried out at Caerau in 2012 and 2013.

More than a hundred homes faced damp and mould due to the poor workmanship, affecting the health and lives of numerous residents.

The cost of rectifying the damage has been set at £3.5m – with £2.65m coming from the Welsh Government, subject to the submission of a business plan by Bridgend Council (BCBC), and £855,000 from the local authority.

At a meeting of full council on Wednesday, February 9, Cllr Keith Edwards said he felt a “profound sense of shame and embarrassment” that some residents in Caerau have been subjected to what he called “this terrible disaster”.

He asked the question at full council:

“Will any thought be given within this £3.5m umbrella to reimbursing people who have already spent substantial amounts of money, through no fault of their own, bringing their property back up to a reasonable standard?”

BCBC chief executive Mark Shephard answered:

“First of all, there clearly is a huge amount of regret for the role the authority did have within this, but I do need to remind members that the vast majority of properties the authority had nothing to do with at all.

“We had a conviction from the outset of pursuing this since 2019 that what we wanted to do was come up with a scheme to address the issues for all of the affected people in Caerau and that is what we have done.”

Work on 25 of the properties was done by Green Renewable Wales (GRW) Ltd and associated companies – who were contracted by BCBC using funds from the Arbed Scheme.

Work on the other 79 properties was funded through the UK Government’s Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP).

Mr Shephard also said he didn’t know if there would be financial reimbursement for affected residents as the council hasn’t submitted its business case to the Welsh Government.

The council agreed in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that it would do this by February 28.

Mr Shephard added:

“The funding that the Welsh Government have provisionally provided for this has come from the Minister for Climate Change and it comes from a pot of money around energy efficiency.

“Very much the aim of Welsh Government here is to put right the wrongs of this work and to ensure the benefits that were intended from the original scheme in terms of energy efficiency and addressing issues such as fuel poverty are put right by stripping off the cladding that was failing and putting new [cladding] on.

“I don’t think I can commit at this stage that there is anything in terms of compensation.”

Although Mr Shephard said it is difficult to give a precise timescale for the repair works, he did say at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that he hoped – if things go according to plan – that work would likely begin towards the end of 2022, with the “bulk of the work” likely to take place in 2023-24.

An engagement process and procurement process will also need to be carried out before any physical repair work can begin.

Independents leader, Cllr Alex Williams said he thought it was “regrettable that £855,000 of the council’s money will have to be spent on a scheme [that] shouldn’t have happened in the first place” and “it is absolutely key that we address the failures of the past”.

An internal audit report into the Arbed Scheme highlighted multiple failings, including the discovery that public money may have been paid to a firm that didn’t exist.

It was found that “no due diligence checks were evidenced” in contracting GRW, which was funded by BCBC through the Arbed Scheme, and the companies it sub-contracted.

The internal audit report also highlighted potential breaches of the council’s Members Code of Conduct.

The director of the now dissolved GRW, Phil White, who died in October was a BCBC councillor at the time.

Independent Councillor, Ross Penhale-Thomas, said at Wednesday’s meeting:

“It has taken us 10 years to get to this point and at more than 10 times the cost of the original programme of works.

“Needless to say there will be heightened interest in the procurement process, use of materials and overall satisfaction in what is going to be a challenging piece of work.”

The councillor asked what avenues will be available to members, residents and other stakeholders to ensure transparency throughout the remedial project.

In response, Mr Shephard said:

“We are anticipating a significant amount of work around engagement, in particular with local residents and householders from the eligible households within Caerau, but also of course with local members so that there is an understanding of what that process may be, what the realistic timescales may be and how we intend to go about the process to give confidence to all of those stakeholders that it will be done thoroughly and properly.

“What I can’t yet give you are definitive timelines or details because that remains to be seen.”

At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, council leader Huw David said: “We are sorry about what has happened and we are doing our very best to rectify that. We will move as quickly as we can on this, but we want to make sure that the work is done properly.”