Dangerous cladding on all high-rise buildings in government-funded schemes in England will be fixed by the end of 2029, Angela Rayner has pledged.
Criticising the pace of remediation, more than seven years after the Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people, the deputy prime minister announced an acceleration plan on Monday for buildings of 18 metres and over, which will include severe penalties for freeholders who fail to act.
She also said that by the end of 2029, every building of 11 metres and over with unsafe cladding would either have been fixed or have a completion date for remedial work, otherwise landlords would face hefty fines.
Ministers claimed it was the first time a target date had been set to make buildings safe. But the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign coalition said it was not the “meaningful change” it was hoping for, which the government had pledged in opposition, and just added more layers of bureaucracy.
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.”
The announcement of the plan follows letters sent by Rayner, the secretary of state for housing, to organisations responsible for fixing residential buildings with unsafe cladding, setting out new deadlines for the commencement of works and telling them they must act now or face the consequences.
The government said it has been engaging with mayors, local enforcement agencies and developers since July to address the unacceptably slow pace of remediation.
As well as identifying all unsafe buildings – the government hopes to have reviewed more than 95% of buildings 11 metres and over by the end of next year – and fixing them faster, the other main objective of the joint action plan is to protect residents from the financial burden of remediation.
Developers will double the rate at which they fix the buildings they are responsible for under the plan, which will be backed by investment in enforcement so that councils, fire and rescue authorities and the building safety regulator have the capacity to tackle hundreds of cases a year.
The government said that only 30% of buildings in England identified to be at risk have been remediated, with potentially thousands more yet to be identified.
As well as living in fear, residents have been hit with higher insurance and service charges and stuck with flats they cannot sell.
End Our Cladding Scandal believes that as many as 11,000 buildings taller than 11 metres may still be at risk from combustible cladding.
Giles Grover, from the campaign, said of the announcement: “It’s not really going to make much of a difference on the ground, it’s just making an already complicated approach even more complicated. And to be honest, at this stage, it all feels a bit performative, really.
“It doesn’t look like there’s any oversight, you’ve got too many funding schemes rather than a properly joined-up approach. It just looks like they’ve just added further layers of bureaucracy, it’s all still too vague.”
He said Labour should do what it proposed in 2021 and create a government-funded building works agency to decide what works are necessary, then commission and pay for them.
Grover added that there were issues that hadn’t been considered, including buildings under 11 metres and leaseholders who did not qualify to be protected from remediation costs.
The government’s announcement comes on the same day as MPs will debate the findings of the Grenfell Tower inquiry’s final report in parliament. Published in September, it blamed decades of government failure and “systematic dishonesty” of companies for the tragedy.
