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Twenty-eight councils request fire safety funding from government
A total of 28 councils have asked the government for help funding fire safety work to high rises, but no cash has been allocated yet.
Councils are scrambling to check and remove cladding and insulation on high rises, with fire wardens and safety officers in place in the interim.
John Healey, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for housing, put two written questions to the government over the funding position for town halls earlier this month.
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In his response yesterday, housing minister Alok Sharma revealed that 28 councils had contacted government, either directly or through an MP.
“We are dealing with each local authority on a case-by-case basis in order to establish whether there is a need for assistance,” he said.
Asked what sum of money had been requested from central government by these authorities, Mr Sharma said “it is not possible to give an overall figure at this stage”.
He added: “We are working with social landlords on a case-by-case basis to explore whether there is the possibility of the removal of financial restrictions to support essential fire safety work being undertaken.”
This could imply a relaxation of borrowing rules on councils’ Housing Revenue Accounts which limit the amount they can borrow against future rental income. Councils have long lobbied for these caps to be lifted or abolished.
Communities secretary Sajid Javid was previously forced into an embarrassing climbdown on funding in July, after claiming no councils had contacted his department asking for financial support when several had.
Yesterday, Newham Council confirmed to Inside Housing that interim measures alone on three tower blocks will cost £5m.
Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales has written to the government to request that it funds the cladding replacement, but had received “no substantive response” by last Thursday.
At least 80 people died when flames ripped through Grenfell Tower in June, prompting urgent checks of fire safety at other high rises up and down the country.
Never Again campaign
In the days following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017, Inside Housing launched the Never Again campaign to call 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.
One year on, we have extended the campaign asks in the light of information that has emerged since.
Here are our updated asks:
GOVERNMENT
- Act on the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations to tower blocks of 18m and higher. Commit to producing a timetable for implementation by autumn 2018, setting out how recommendations that don’t require legislative change can be taken forward without delay
- Follow through on commitments to fully ban combustible materials on high-rise buildings
- Unequivocally ban desktop studies
- Review recommendations and advice given to ministers after the Lakanal House fire and implement necessary changes
- Publish details of all tower blocks with dangerous cladding, insulation and/or external panels and commit to a timeline for remedial works. Provide necessary guidance to landlords to ensure that removal work can begin on all affected private and social residential blocks by the end of 2018. Complete quarterly follow-up checks to ensure that remedial work is completed to the required standard. Checks should not cease until all work is completed.
- Stand by the prime minister’s commitment to fully fund the removal of dangerous cladding
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
- Explore options for requiring remedial works on affected private sector residential tower blocks
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
- Take immediate action to identify privately owned residential tower blocks so that cladding and external panels can be checked
LANDLORDS
- Publish details of the combinations of insulations and cladding materials for all high rise blocks
- Commit to ensuring that removal work begins on all blocks with dangerous materials by the end of 2018 upon receipt of guidance from government
- Publish current fire risk assessments for all high rise blocks (the Information Commissioner has required councils to publish and recommended that housing associations should do the same). Work with peers to share learning from assessments and improve and clarify the risk assessment model.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out. Ensure assessments consider the external features of blocks. Always use an appropriate, qualified expert to conduct assessments.
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in the light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
- Adopt Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommended approach for listening to and addressing tenants’ concerns, with immediate effect
CURRENT SIGNATORIES:
- Chartered Institute of Housing
- G15
- National Federation of ALMOs
- National Housing Federation
- Placeshapers