Industry News
Campaigners clash with Housing Secretary over cladding removal and building safety
recommendations from the Grenfell Tower public inquiry.
A On 30 October, the MHCLG tweeted “It has been
a year since the Grenfell inquiry phase 1 report was published. We are implementing the recommendations from the report in the most practical, propotionate and effective way as a priority. By reforming building and fire safety we are making homes safer.” It did not take long before angry tweets were
being fired back with people complaining about the slow speed of implementation, some of the recommendations being amended or dropped altogether and the Government’s proposals on the funding of cladding removal costs, particularly from leaseholders. The group End Our Cladding Scandal responded
with “We beg to differ. We wouldn't be here, speaking on behalf of millions of people, if that were true. Please, follow our 10 steps if you want to.” Current affairs journalist and broadcaster Kate
Lamble challenged the Housing Secretary, tweeting “One year on from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry's first set of recommendations we think only 4 of 46 have already been implemented.” Other responses were elicited from such groups as the UK Cladding Action Group, Olympic Park
n acrimonious disagreement broke out on twitter between the Housing Secretary and campaigners over the delivery of
Homes Action Group, East London Cladding Action Group, Richmond House Residents and Grenfell United.
CAMPAIGN DEMANDS The 10 steps referred to by the End Our Cladding Scandal are:
1. The Government must lead an urgent national effort to remove all dangerous cladding from buildings by June 2022, including the prioritisation of blocks most at risk
2. The Building Safety Fund must cover all buildings, regardless of height, and a range of internal and external fire safety defects, not just cladding
3. The Government should provide the money up front and then seek to recover it from any responsible parties or via a temporary levy on development
4. Social housing providers must have full and equal access to the fund
5. The government must compel building owners or managers to be honest with residents about fire safety defects
6. The Government should cover the cost of interim safety measures
7. The Government should act as an insurer of last resort and underwrite insurance where premiums have soared
8. A fairer, faster process is needed to replace EWS and funding is necessary to ensure all buildings that require a form are surveyed within 12 months
9. Mental health support must be offered to a ffected residents
10. Protecting residents from historic and future costs must be a key commitment of new building safety legislation
EWS refers to a system for competent fire risk assessors to confirm the safety of an external wall façade, without them having to carry out invasive tests. It has problems from day one because there is a shortage of surveyors, they struggled to obtain indemnity insurance and when inspections were carried out, they usually resulted in the building test being “failed”. These problems were exacerbated when
the Government changed the threshold of building heights which needed testing, adding another 88,000 residential buildings to the testing programme. The upshot is that banks require EWS forms for
almost all purpose-built flats and the system cannot cope with demand. These properties cannot be sold and the occupants cannot move. An estimated 1.5 million flats across the country are unsellable, causing a huge deadlock and misery for individual mortgage holders.
Cladding removal work could take until 2029
Dangerous combustible cladding panels which exposes residents to unacceptable fire risks is being replaced so slowly that it could take until 2029 before all affected buildings are fixed. The claim is being made by the Labour
Party. According to official figures, 220 high-rise tower blocks are yet to be made completely safe, and the majority of them are still wrapped in dangerous aluminium composite material (ACM) panels. Over the last eight months privately owned
towers have been fixed at a rate of 1.2 per month, and 80 blocks have still not started remediation works. Social housing blocks are being fixed at the rate of just over two per month, and there are seven where nothing has happened yet.
The shadow housing minister, Thangam
Debbonaire, said the current rate of progress meant the Government was on course to miss its original targets for fixing the cladding crisis by almost a decade. Back in July 2019, James Brokenshire the
Housing Secretary at the time, said he expected building owners to complete remediation work by June 2020. In September this year, the Government said it expected all unsafe ACM cladding to be removed by the end of this year, with remedial works finished by the end of 2021. “The Government’s lack of action over the last
three years to tackle the building safety crisis has left thousands trapped unsafe homes,” Debbonaire told the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, in a letter. “The only thing that will fix the issue is a long-
term solution to the remediation of buildings. It is increasingly clear that the size and scope of the building safety fund is nowhere near sufficient to ensure that all tall buildings are made safe. The Government must urgently bring forward a long- term solution for external wall remediation which protects leaseholders.”
14 | HMM December/January 2021 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
Leaseholders have been left unable to sell their
properties because mortgage companies are requiring checks on external wall systems before they lend, and there is a shortage of surveyors to do the checks. Additionally some qualified assessors have been unable to obtain professional indemnity insurance to undertake the job. “The property checking process is not working
and millions of families across the country are in limbo as a result,” said Debbonaire, calling for a faster and fairer process that prioritises the buildings most at risk. So far the Government has made £600m available
for the removal of ACM panels, and a further £1bn to tackle other fire safety problems in high-rise blocks discovered since Grenfell. The public accounts committee has suggested the repair fund needs to be much larger, with up to £3.5bn likely to be needed. In total, the government estimates that more than 2,000 high-rise buildings need to be fixed because of various types of dangerous cladding – which also includes high-pressure laminate panels – plus the discovery of previously hidden problems that could allow fire to spread.
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