You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
LGA: councils ‘can’t afford’ fire safety work
Councils cannot afford to carry out necessary fire safety work on high-rise blocks, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
Simon Blackburn, chair of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board, was speaking in the wake of the latest results from government tests on cladding systems. He said they had been speaking to councils affected.
Mr Blackburn added: “With test fails affecting buildings owned by a range of different landlords across the country, it is clear that the current building regulation system has failed. It is also clear that councils cannot afford to carry out this work.
“As a result, we remain firmly of the view that the government needs to meet the exceptional cost to councils of removing and replacing cladding and insulation on high-rise blocks.”
READ MORE
The government has said it will only cover the costs of fire safety work if a council is in serious financial difficulty. Councils have been infuriated with the response from government over the issue, with Sajid Javid being attacked for equivocating on the issue and for apparently being unaware of letters sent to his department asking for help.
A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said: “We’ve been clear with councils and housing associations that we expect them to do whatever local fire services and experts say is necessary to make residential buildings safe.
“We will ensure that where local fire services have advised works are essential to ensure the fire safety of a building, current restrictions on the use of financial resources will not prevent them going ahead.”
According to the LGA, 16 councils own 46 high-rise blocks with some kind of aluminium cladding. A total of 173 more are owned by housing associations and other landlords.
Mr Blackburn suggested that these “other landlords” are “not acting as quickly to inform residents about test fails”.
He also claimed that they “lack the urgency shown by councils to identify their buildings with the cladding and insulation systems which have failed the three tests so far and take steps to make them safe”.
