More funds needed to remove unsafe cladding

The Housing Committee said it was alarmed that a £1.6 billion Government fund set up after the Grenfell fire was inadequate to cover the cost of repairs needed.

Mike Robinson, the British Safety Council’s chief executive, commented, “The Government must provide sufficient protection against leaseholders paying the bill for the removal of unsafe cladding from tower blocks. Making sure those buildings are safe – and that people feel safer in them – should be the Government’s responsibility at no cost to leaseholders.

The Government has failed to deliver its pledge, made after the Grenfell tragedy, to provide safe alternatives to dangerous cladding on all buildings in England taller than 18 metres by June this year. According to the Government’s own figures, only a third (155 out of 455) of high-rise buildings with similar cladding to Grenfell had this replaced by September 2020.

It has now been over three years since Grenfell, in which 72 people lost their lives, and action to deliver this commitment should be accelerated.”