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Fifty-six building owners ‘refusing’ to remove dangerous cladding, says May
There are fifty-six building owners “refusing” to remove dangerous cladding from private buildings, the prime minister has said.
Previously, the government has said that for fifty-six of the 268 private sector buildings found to have the same cladding as Grenfell Tower “remediation plans remain unclear”.
Today’s statement from Theresa May was the first indication from the government of direct resistance from building owners over the removal of dangerous cladding.
The prime minister made the revelation in parliament today while responding to a question on cladding from Labour’s shadow housing minister Sarah Jones.
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Ms Jones said: “The prime minister promised after the Grenfell Tower fire that she would do whatever it takes to keep our people safe. Today, 19 months on, the vast majority – 85% – of the hundreds of blocks draped in exactly the same highly flammable cladding are still covered.”
She added: “As the prime minister wastes billions on her no-deal gamble, there is a stench of complacency about these things that matter, too. Mr Speaker, when will the prime minister be able to tell this country that she has honoured her promise?”
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, of the 160 social housing buildings covered in the same cladding as Grenfell, only 37 have finished remediation.
Meanwhile, 81 have started remediation, 40 have a remediation plan in place but remediation has not started and building owners are still developing plans for two buildings.
In the private sector, the picture is even worse. Of 268 buildings covered in Grenfell-style cladding, just 30 have finished remediation, 18 have started, 126 have a remediation plan in place but have not started, and 38 have plans being developed.
For the remaining 56, the government had previously claimed “remediation plans remain unclear”, but today Ms May revealed that those building owners are actively refusing to remove dangerous cladding.
In her response to Ms Jones, the prime minister said: “Interim measures are in place where necessary on all of the 171 high-rise private residential buildings with the unsafe ACM [aluminium composite material] cladding, but permanent remediation is rightly the focus and we’ve repeatedly called on private building owners not to pass costs onto leaseholders.
“As a result of our interventions, 212 owners have either started, completed or have commitments in place to remediate. There are 56 owners that are refusing to remediate. We’re maintaining pressure on this but we rule nothing out.”
