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Four councils to receive Grenfell remedial work funding
Four councils are set to be granted financial flexibility to pay for high-rise fire safety works, government officials have said.
Appearing before the Communities and Local Government Committee this week, Melanie Dawes, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, said the councils could receive help “in the next few weeks”.
The local authorities are to be given either extra Housing Revenue Account borrowing flexibility or an opportunity to make a one-off transfer from their general funds to pay for the works.
Tamara Finkelstein, who is leading the Building Safety Programme at the Ministry, said 36 councils had contacted the government to ask about funding help since the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June last year. Of these, nine have tower blocks clad in aluminium composite material.
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Ms Finkelstein said that 10 of the 36 councils “look like what they are talking about might be essential works” and are providing extra information about their buildings.
“Four of them have given us the information; we’ve had very detailed conversations with them and are really right towards the end of that process,” she added.
She confirmed that “the commitment has been made that that flexibility would be available” for these councils, but that a final agreement had not yet been reached.
Ministers have repeatedly said that councils are responsible for making their buildings safe, but that they should approach the government if they think financial constraints could prevent “essential” fire safety work from going ahead.
At least two councils – Nottingham City Council and Croydon Council – have had requests for help to retrofit sprinklers turned down on the basis that the works are “additional rather than essential”.
Ms Dawes said that while cladding is the government’s “primary focus”, funding flexibility for sprinklers has not been ruled out. “In some cases sprinklers are part of the conversation, including among the four,” she added.
Ms Finkelstein said: “We’re not looking to make a judgement about what’s essential in the department. We are asking local authorities to tell us if the building will be unsafe unless they put in sprinklers.”
However, she added that the question of whether a building is unsafe “is a reasonably high bar”.
Never Again campaign
Inside Housing has launched a campaign to improve fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire
Never Again: campaign asks
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
LANDLORDS
- Take immediate action to check cladding and external panels on tower blocks and take prompt, appropriate action to remedy any problems
- Update risk assessments using an appropriate, qualified expert.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
GOVERNMENT
- Provide urgent advice on the installation and upkeep of external insulation
- Update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.
