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May blames councils over non-compliant cladding
Theresa May appeared to blame councils for the large number of tower blocks clad in combustible material during a heated Prime Minister’s Questions.
The prime minister revealed that at the latest count, cladding from 120 high rises in 37 local authority areas has been tested and has failed combustibility tests.
Local authorities and housing associations “should not wait for test results”, but instead “get on with fire safety checks” and “take any action necessary”, the prime minister said.
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In response to a question from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Ms May said the cladding on Grenfell Tower was “non-compliant” with building regulations.
She later added: “We have the building regulations about compliant materials. The question is why is it that despite that we have seen in local authority area after local authority area materials being put up that appear not to comply with those building regulations?
“And that is what we need to get to the bottom of. Why is it that fire inspections, that local authority inspections, appear to have missed this essential issue?”
Mr Corbyn retorted: “When you cut local authority budgets by 40% we all pay a price in public safety.”
He said the Grenfell Tower tragedy has exposed “the disastrous effects of austerity”.
Elsewhere in the session, the Labour leader pointed to an Inside Housing report from 2015 which revealed that fewer than 1% of council tower blocks had sprinklers fitted inside flats.
Ms May insisted the government had ensured that councils “were aware” of the coroner’s recommendation in 2013 after the Lakanal House fire for housing providers to consider retrofitting sprinklers in tower blocks.
