A tribunal has ordered remedial work to be carried out at Vista Tower, a residential high rise in Stevenage owned by Railpen that is affected by fire safety issues. Levelling up secretary Michael Gove called the order a “victory”, but Railpen stressed the court said it was not at fault and blamed delays in the remediation process on government.  

The judges made clear the remediation order made in March does not mean Railpen is at fault, but issued it nonetheless to reassure leaseholders. The order has no impact on the existing timeline to complete works by autumn 2025.  

Since remedial work has now begun, “it is difficult to see that a [remediation order] will make any practical difference”, the verdict reads, but the judges decided to make the order “as a backstop to give reassurance” to the 57 leaseholders who made the application, noting that the new legislation is focussed on leaseholders. The tribunal makes clear that “this is not a fault-based order”.  

Gove called the remediation order “a victory for leaseholders in Vista Tower and across the country”.  

He said: “It is hugely disappointing that Railpen - the ultimate owner of Grey GR and who manage £34bn in assets - has kept leaseholders in limbo in this way. Railway workers with their pensions invested in this fund, as well as innocent leaseholders, deserve better.”  

He said the court case would “serve as a warning to all building owners” that “fail to fix” unsafe buildings. 

In October 2022, the government started legal action against Grey GR over Vista Tower, citing “unacceptable delays in fixing multiple serious fire safety issues, first identified in the building in 2019”. This was the first legal action brought by the government under the Building Safety Act 2022. It is seeking remediation orders on a further five Grey GR buildings. 

That it ‘failed’ to fix the buildings is disputed by Railpen. The pension scheme said it started remedial work on the outside of Vista Tower in January, having completed internal work in 2023 which needed to be carried out first, and blamed delays in the remedial work on administrative hoops in seeking funding from the government’s Building Safety Fund. Railpen’s fiduciary duty means it needs to explore all funding routes.  

Grey GR said it has “always been fully committed to remediating” the buildings for which it is responsible, including Vista Tower, and has made progress.  

 

“The tribunal asserted that criticism of delays caused by Grey's application to Building Safety Fund funding was 'misplaced', due to Grey having followed the government's own complex guidance and advice in assessing the fire safety of Vista Tower,” it said.

 

"We have faced numerous delays during the remediation process in our attempts to seek the clarity needed from DLUHC to proceed at pace with remediation. We have engaged extensively with the government throughout where it has been possible to do so but have been met with slow – and in some cases no – responses to our enquiries, constantly changing deadlines and requirements, and a frequent moving of goalposts,” Grey said. 

  

"Following the decision, we hope we can move forward and continue to be a part of the solution to an issue that was not of our making and provide leaseholders with safer homes."   

The death of 72 people in London's Grenfell Tower in 2017 was largely attributed to highly flammable ‘cladding’ material, sometimes attached to the outside of tower blocks. In response to the shocking incident, new legislation came into force in June 2022 under which landlords could be ordered to carry out remedial work by a specified time.  

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