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Hazardous cladding on all high rise buildings in government funded schemes c England will be fixed by the end of 2029, Angela Rayner promised.
Criticizing the pace of remediation, more than seven years on Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people, the deputy prime minister announced a fast-track plan on Monday for buildings of 18 meters and over, which will include tough penalties for freeholders who fail to act.
She also said that by the end of 2029 any building 11 meters and above with unsafe cladding will either be repaired or have a date for the repair works to be completed or landlords will face hefty fines.
Ministers say it is the first time a target date has been set for making buildings safe. But the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign coalition said it was not the “significant change” it had hoped for, which the government promised in opposition, and simply added layers of red tape.
Rayner said: “More than seven years after the Grenfell tragedy, thousands of people have been left to live in homes across the country with a dangerous lining. The pace of remediation has been too slow for too long. We are taking decisive action to fix this mistake and make homes safe.
“Our plan to accelerate recovery will ensure that those responsible for building safety deliver the change that residents need and deserve.”
The announcement of the plan follows letters sent by Rayner, the state housing secretary, to organizations responsible for repairing apartment buildings with unsafe cladding, setting new deadlines for work to begin and telling them to act now or face the consequences .
The government said it had been engaging with mayors, local law enforcement agencies and developers since July to tackle the unacceptably slow pace of recovery.
As well as identifying all unsafe buildings – the government hopes to inspect more than 95% of buildings 11 meters tall and over by the end of next year – and fix them faster, the other main aim of the joint action plan is to protect residents from the financial burden of remediation.
Developers will double the speed at which they repair the buildings they are responsible for under the plan, which will be backed by investment in enforcement so that councils, fire and rescue authorities and the building safety regulator have the capacity to deal with hundreds of cases a year.
The government said only 30% of buildings in England identified as being at risk had been remediated, with potentially thousands more yet to be identified.
As well as living in fear residents are hit with higher insurance and service charges and are left with apartments they can’t sell.
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End Our Cladding Scandal estimates that around 11,000 buildings taller than 11 meters may still be at risk from combustible cladding.
The campaign’s Giles Grover said of the announcement: “It won’t really make much of a difference on the ground, it just makes an already complicated approach even more complicated. And to be honest, it all seems a bit performative at this stage, really.
“There doesn’t seem to be any gap, you have too many funding schemes instead of a properly joined up approach. It just seems like they just added extra layers of red tape, everything is still too vague.
He said he had to do the work what did 2021 offer and create a government-funded public works agency to decide what works are needed, then commission and pay for them.
Grover added that there were issues that had not been addressed, including buildings under 11 meters and tenants who did not qualify to be protected from rebuilding costs.
The government’s announcement comes on the same day MPs will debate the findings of the Grenfell Tower inquiry’s final report in Parliament. Published in September, it accused decades of government failure and “systematic dishonesty” of companies for the tragedy.
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