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The government has written to the owners of social and private sector high rises which have yet to remove and replace Grenfell-style cladding after missing a key target in the process.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) told Inside Housing that the letters to building owners “reiterate their responsibility to keep residents safe” and repeated threats to name and shame those without a clear remediation plan.
Then-housing secretary James Brokenshire said in July that “other than in a small handful of exceptional cases”, affected social housing tower blocks would have remediation completed by the end of 2019. MHCLG then said in October that it expected this deadline to be met.
However, figures released last week showed there were still 91 social housing high rises with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding by 31 December – including 14 where remediation work had not even started.
Remediation has finished on 68 affected social housing blocks.
MHCLG pointed to the fact that 91% of social housing high rises found to have ACM cladding since Grenfell have either had it replaced or are in the process. It added that the work “must be done properly and will take time”.
Mr Brokenshire also set a June 2020 deadline for unsafe ACM cladding to be removed and replaced on private sector high rises and “a start and finish date” for the work should be agreed by the end of December 2019, threatening enforcement action against building owners without a plan in place.
But last week’s numbers showed there were 75 private residential buildings where plans were still being developed and a further 24 “where the cladding status is still to be confirmed”.
Cladding work has completed on only 23 such blocks and started on 31, with no work started on 143.
Asked about its response to the missed targets, a spokesperson for MHCLG said: “Residents’ safety remains our utmost priority and we are working to ensure remediation work is completed promptly.
“We have written to building owners to reiterate their responsibility in keeping residents safe and we will not hesitate to name and shame those who do not have a clear plan to safeguard their residents.”
It declined to share the letter.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick made a series of building safety announcements on Monday, including that the government will start to name owners of buildings where ACM remediation work has not started from next month. During a speech to MPs, he admitted that progress was “still far too slow”.