The government has announced plans to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding as well as tougher penalties for landlords who don’t adhere to the deadline.
Under the plans, buildings taller than 18 metres with dangerous cladding covered by government-funded schemes, must be fixed by the end of 2029.
Unsafe cladding on buildings over 11 metres is required to be fixed or have a date for completion by the same date, or landlords will run the risk of facing penalties.
Housing secretary, Angela Rayner, said that the government was taking “decisive action” but the plans have received criticism from campaigners, who said that this would “only make a horribly complicated process worse”.
In the seven years since the Grenfell fire, efforts have been made to remove similar cladding materials from other tower blocks. However, only a third of tower blocks have been fixed and around half a million people still live in mid and high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding in place. It is also estimated that up to 60% of buildings with dangerous cladding are yet to be identified.
The housing department previously estimated that works in buildings over 11 metres in England would be completed by 2035. However, the National Audit Office has warned that this target would be missed unless changes were made to speed up the process.
A remediation acceleration plan has now been introduced by the government which it says will “get buildings fixed quicker, ensure rogue freeholders are held to account and put the end in sight for affected residents”. It also said that the new deadlines will be backed by investment in enforcement.
So far, 29 developers covering 95% of the buildings being worked on have committed to more than doubling the rate at which they have been assessing and undertaking work on unsafe buildings.
The MHCLG estimates that the total bill for the remediation work on all residential buildings in England over 11 metres could reach between £12.6billion and £22.4billion. The government has set aside £5.1billion to the total bill while the rest will be provided by developers, social housing providers and private owners.
However, End Our Cladding Scandal, a group representing leaseholders impacted by unsafe buildings, said that they are “still far from a comprehensive solution” on building safety.
The End Our Cladding Scandal group which represents leaseholders impacted by unsafe buildings said that the plan is “still far from a comprehensive solution”.
In a statement, the group said: “Labour’s remediation acceleration plan is extremely disappointing. These proposals will only make a horribly complicated process worse with further layers of bureaucracy.”
“The government may be patting itself on the back by announcing a target date for all high-rise buildings in government-funded schemes to have been remediated; however, the building safety fund first opened for registrations in June 2020, so a target date of nine years from then is underwhelming.”
“We are still far from a comprehensive solution that will bring about the change innocent leaseholders and residents across the country need and deserve to see.”
“There is still far too much uncertainty. Severe penalties will be meaningless without leaseholders and residents knowing for sure when homes will be made fully safe. This ‘plan’ will do little to change that.”
Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, said: “More than seven years on from the Grenfell tragedy, thousands of people have been left living in homes across this country with dangerous cladding.”
“The pace of remediation has been far too slow for far too long. We are taking decisive action to right this wrong and make homes safe.”
“Our remediation acceleration plan will ensure those responsible for making buildings safe deliver the change residents need and deserve.”
