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Labour: government cladding testing ‘too slow and too narrow’
The government’s tower block cladding testing programme has been slammed by Labour’s shadow secretary of state for housing as “too slow and too narrow”.
In a Commons debate on the Grenfell Tower public inquiry this afternoon John Healey said it is “totally unacceptable” that four weeks after the fire government ministers “still don’t know and can’t say how many of the country’s other tower blocks are unsafe”.
Only 224 tests of cladding have been done, out of an estimated total of 530 tower blocks with cladding.
Mr Healey said: “The government’s testing programme is too slow, it’s too narrow, it’s too confused. This is a testing programme in chaos.”
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He said he had heard stories of councils and housing associations that want to test the cladding on their buildings, do not have the same cladding as Grenfell Tower, and can’t get them tested.
At the end of last week the government announced a new, more in-depth round of testing that would include insulation as well as cladding.
Steve Coffey, chief executive of Liverpool Mutual Homes, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show this morning that the cladding from one of the tower blocks he manages failed the government’s first test but then passed the latest round of testing.
He said: “We need some real clarity on where we are with things.”
Mr Healey asked: “What advice will government give to landlords if cladding passes the new second round of tests when it may have failed the narrow first round of tests? If cladding fails the government tests, must it be taken off tower blocks in all circumstances and will the government cover the costs of taking it down and replacing it?”
Labour sources said even those “closely connected” to the testing process had admitted it is “a complete mess”.
Damian Green, work and pensions secretary, who stood in for Theresa May in the debate, did not address the testing process.
The long-promised government review into building regulations guidance also appears to be further delayed.
Mr Healey said housing minister Alok Sharma had told him today that the review “will now need to be informed by any recommendations that the independent inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire makes”.
This is despite Mr Sharma assuring colleagues a few weeks ago that the review was “almost ready” to start, four years after it was recommended by the Lakanal House coroner.
Mr Green said the government’s expert fire safety panel is looking at the building regulations as part of its wider work and will make urgent recommendations if necessary.
