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The government has backed away from its target of overseeing the remediation of buildings with Grenfell-style cladding by June, saying the work “takes time and must be done safely and properly”.
Last July, then-communities secretary James Brokenshire issued a written statement saying he expected all cladding remediation to be finished by June this year.
When he made this statement, there were 327 tall buildings with an aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding system considered to be dangerous that still required remediation.
This comprised 102 buildings in the social housing sector, 163 buildings in the private sector, 26 student towers, 29 hotels, and seven publicly owned buildings.
Mr Brokenshire said that all the social housing towers would complete by the end of the year and that other towers would complete by June 2020, other than in “exceptional circumstances”.
He warned building owners to “expect enforcement action” if they did not meet these timescales.
But figures released last week showed that by the end of April, 307 towers were still awaiting the completion of remediation work – just 20 fewer than the figure when Mr Brokenshire made his pledge.
A total of 42 buildings have completed during the year, but more have been discovered, largely in the private sector.
This means there are 180 private buildings awaiting the completion of works, 17 more than when Mr Brokenshire made his pledge, with 131 not even having started.
While the government has ‘named and shamed’ a number of freeholders for not progressing work, it has introduced no meaningful enforcement action.
Asked by Inside Housing whether it still intended to hit the pledge, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Building owners are responsible for making their buildings safe. Remediation work takes time and must be done safely and properly. How long it takes varies according to the individual building, depending on the type and extent of the work required.”
Mr Brokenshire’s pledge came shortly after the announcement of a £200m fund for removal work in the private sector. But this has proved difficult to access, with freeholders – often little more than investment companies established to hold the property asset – required to forward-fund the work and collect ‘state aid’ declarations from all the building’s leaseholders.
A further £1bn for building safety was announced at the Budget in March, although this fund has not yet opened for applications and will be used primarily for non-ACM buildings.
Only 25 buildings of 92 that have submitted an application have so far been approved.
The spokesperson added: “Residents’ safety remains our priority. This government is bringing forward the biggest change in building safety in a generation, backed by our unprecedented £1.6bn fund to ensure unsafe cladding, where it remains in place, is removed as soon as possible.
“We have also issued guidance to ensure that this essential building safety work continues during the pandemic and have secured pledges from 26 local leaders and five metro mayors to ensure this vital remediation work continues, where it is safe to do so.”
Cladding remediation on 84 private buildings is being paid by the developer or freeholder and 23 have been accepted under a warranty claim.
Construction expert Dr David Hancock has been appointed to review the remediation of unsafe ACM cladding from high-rise buildings in the private sector.