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MHCLG still waiting for cladding research findings after nine months
The government is still awaiting recommendations on how to speed up the removal and replacement of dangerous cladding nine months after it commissioned research into the process, it has emerged.
In September, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) confirmed that its agency, Innovate UK, had handed the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) £250,000, asking it to devise faster ways to strip and replace unsafe systems.
Last week, a government source told Inside Housing that the work with the MTC remains ongoing.
It is understood that John Healey, shadow housing secretary, will put in a written question to the government asking for more information about the research.
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The Guardian previously reported that MTC technicians would return final recommendations to BEIS and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG, then called the Department for Communities and Local Government) in November.
However, a spokesperson for BEIS said this was not correct and that it was not aware of this deadline. She added that the MTC will report back to MHCLG.
MHCLG would not reveal when it expects to receive the MTC’s recommendations.
A spokesperson for the MTC said: “Unfortunately we are not in a position to provide any further information at this stage.”
At the last count, of 159 social housing high rises with cladding which failed fire safety tests in the wake of the Grenfell Tower atrocity, only 10 have had replacement cladding fully fitted.
There are another 138 privately owned residential buildings clad in flammable Aluminium Composite Material systems, but no figures for remediation work in the private sector are yet available.
Prime minister Theresa May has said the government will “fully fund” replacement of dangerous cladding for councils and housing association blocks.
