LGA: government will cover costs of councils' fire safety work

In an email to all council leaders, Gary Porter, chair of the Local Government Association (LGA), said the government had committed to covering the cost of work councils have to carry out to improve the fire safety of their blocks.

Councils are currently inspecting the cladding of their blocks and whether there are up-to-date fire risk assessments.

The government has already committed to covering the cost of testing cladding to check if it is flammable.

Mr Porter said: “I have been in discussion with DCLG’s [the Department for Communities and Local Government] secretary of state today about the resource implications of any work identified as a result of the new inspections DCLG has requested and secured assurances that funding will be made available to those councils that need to conduct work.”

He added: “Once more details are available the LGA will be in contact with your authorities. We also aim, as I said on Friday, to meet with the fire minister and housing minister next week, which will provide us with another opportunity to raise any issues or concerns you have with the government or other agencies.”