The government is unlikely to hit its target of resolving the cladding crisis by 2029 with progress ‘painfully slow’ and many barriers still to address, including identifying all buildings affected, which could be as many as 12,000 in total. Work is yet to start on over half of the 5,000 buildings over 11m so far identified; with the remaining c.7,000 yet to be identified.
A report by the Public Accounts Committee has lambasted efforts to resolve the cladding crisis. The the government’s Remediation Acceleration Plan has been criticised as being ‘insufficiently ambitious’ and still does not resolve the cladding issue for all building affected 12 years after the Grenfell Tower disaster. The report also takes aim at the ability of the private sector to deliver on the volume of remediation required both from a skills perspective, and the bandwidth in the construction sector.
“In 2020 the previous Committee warned that skills needed for remediation work would come under pressure as the scope of government’s programmes increased. With MHCLG now planning to accelerate remediation, there are risks that there will not be enough suitably qualified fire risk assessors to determine the scope of works, or trained cladders to undertake the work.”
Given the construction sector is reporting workforce shortages, the dual ambition of building 1.5m new homes in this Parliament, and delivering on cladding remediation places huge pressure on developers adds the report. In London, housing associations report a 90% fall in social housing starts over the last year as a result of diverting funds to remediation work. And the cost of the Building Safety Levy to developers may also reduce the supply of affordable housing.
Critically there is still no definitive conclusion to the numbers of buildings affected, or the cost of remediation. Estimates of 9,000-12,000 buildings, at a cost of £12.6bn and £22.4bn are ‘very broad given the length of time that has passed since Grenfell’ say the Committee.
So far taxpayer contributions have been capped at £5.1bn with the remainder of the cost of remediation to be paid for by private owners, social housing providers and developers but, says the report, there is no understanding of what funding might be needed in the short term to continue the pace of remediation before any recouping of costs through the Building Safety Levy.
Campaign group End our Cladding Scandal welcomed the report, adding it was ‘distressing’ little progress had been made since the last Report in September 2020, describing the promises to resolve the problem in the intervening years by ‘numerous Prime Ministers, several Housing Secretaries, even more Housing Ministers and countless officials’ as ‘nothing but warm words.’
“Labour has tied itself up in knots and prioritised growth, building and cutting red tape while wilfully forgetting the mistakes of the past and the hundreds of thousands of people who remain trapped in unsafe homes. The gap between this government’s plans and reality on the ground remains cavernous. The housing ladder remains broken.”
said the group, adding
“The Government must get their heads out of the sand and stop ignoring the impact of non-cladding defects. We desperately need leadership, and all innocent leaseholders protected with industry made to pay instead. We will keep showing Labour that there is a clear way forward to lifting this huge weight from leaseholders if they join up the mechanisms already in place, take control from the centre and legislate to fill the known gaps and areas of unfairness, rather than simply adding more layers of bureaucracy.”
Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP said Grenfell was a ‘badge of shame’ and those affected by the cladding scandal are being let down. He added the committee share campaigners’ concerns on progress to date.
Unfortunately, we are united with campaigners in deeply regrettable scepticism that current remediation plans are capable of delivering on what’s promised. We would therefore urge Government to look to the recommendations in our report, to help close the gap between their current plans, and the reality on the ground.”
In a subsequent statement the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said
“We continue to work closely with industry, local authorities, and residents to accelerate remediation efforts while ensuring those responsible for unsafe buildings cover the costs, with new penalties and criminal sanctions on building owners who refuse to take action.”
The government has been asked by the committee to give updates on its progress later this year.
