Far too many high and medium-rise buildings are still unsafe after the Grenfell disaster, with dangerous cladding remaining on at least 2,400 blocks, a housing minister has warned.
Wajid Khan, a Labour peer and housing minister, said on Friday that remediation work had not started at approximately 50% of properties being monitored for their unsafe cladding.
He told the House of Lords there is a need to “go further, faster” on 2,415 residential buildings over 11 metres in height in England. Figures show that of 4,834 buildings on the register 983 have started remediation, making 3,398 where the work to make the buildings safe is not yet done. About 30%, or 1,436, have completed remediation.
Lord Khan made the remarks in a debate about the Grenfell Tower inquiry report, which he said focused on fire safety but also “exposed wider failures in practice and culture”.
Gary Porter, a Conservative peer and former chair of the Local Government Association, said it was left to “pure luck” as to whether further tragedies would be prevented and questioned whether the work to make buildings safe will ever be completed.
“There are so many unsafe buildings in this country that will not get remediated at any time in my lifetime,” he said. “There will still be buildings that are dangerous places for people to live in when I’m in my wooden box. There will still be people who will live and sleep every night in a building that could end up killing them.
“We’re not going to get through the remediation process. Every time somebody brings a new piece of work to the table, we find more properties that need fixing.”
Campaigners have repeatedly criticised the slow progress of remediation work in the seven years since the Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people in 2017.
Khan said: “Culture change cannot be a long-term aspiration; it must begin immediately. The government has an obligation to carefully consider the findings and recommendations and continue to reform accordingly.
“So too do the designers, housebuilders, contractors, specialists, professionals, those who produce and market products, those who service and manage buildings.
“Every constituent part of our housing sector must act. What is abundantly clear is that far too many buildings remain unsafe.
“We must go further, faster. Investment in remediation will rise to over £1bn in June 2025-26 and we have previously committed to accelerating the pace of remediation through targeted measures.”
The National Audit Office earlier this month said a target date must be set for work to make safe thousands of buildings covered in dangerous cladding.
The spending watchdog said up to 7,229 buildings across England were yet to be identified and some may never be, as it warned completing works to make all buildings safe at an estimated cost of £16bn may not be achieved in the next decade.
Caroline Pidgeon, a Liberal Democrat peer and former London Assembly member, said: “The huge issue that remains is the number of buildings with dangerous cladding and other fire risks that remain across the country, but particularly in our big cities.”
Liz Sanderson, a Conservative peer who worked for Theresa May, the prime minister at the time of the Grenfell tragedy, told the debate: “It is now nearly seven and a half years since that terrible night, but none of us should ever fall into the trap of thinking ‘Oh, it’s a long time ago’, or that it is somehow easier for people now than it was then. It isn’t.”
