The Government will set out its Remediation Acceleration Plan for cladding ahead of a debate in the House of Commons this afternoon (2 December).
Details of the plan have been released ahead of the debate, with ministers pledging that dangerous cladding will be fixed on all high-rise buildings on Government schemes within the next five years.
Thousands of buildings were found to have flammable cladding and other fire defects following the Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017, which killed 72 people. Builders and freeholders initially tried to pass the costs of fire safety work – often amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds – to leaseholders, prompting those affected to call for Government intervention.
The Government said it has been engaging with local enforcement agencies and developers since July to address the unacceptably slow pace of remediation.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner described the plans as “decisive action” and said the “pace of remediation has been far too slow for far too long.”
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The Remediation Acceleration Plan sets out the following:
- By the end of 2029, all 18m+ (high-rise) buildings with unsafe cladding in a Government-funded scheme will have been remediated.
- By the end of 2029, every 11m+ building with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a date for completion, or the landlords will be liable for severe penalties.
Alongside the plan, the Government will publish a joint action plan with developers to accelerate their work to fix buildings for which they are responsible. At least 29 developers, covering over 95% of the buildings that developers are remediating themselves, have committed to more than doubling the rate at which they have been assessing and starting to fix unsafe buildings, meaning work on all their buildings will start by summer 2027.
Plan is ‘extremely disappointing’
As well as living in fear of their building catching fire, residents in affected properties have been hit with higher insurance and service charges, as well as finding it almost impossible to remortgage or sell their flats.
The Government’s latest announcement has been criticised by campaigners who face the prospect of continuing to live in unsafe homes for a further five years.
The End Our Cladding Scandal group said the plans are “still far from a comprehensive solution” on building safety.
A statement from the group said: “Labour’s Remediation Acceleration Plan is extremely disappointing. These proposals will only make a horribly complicated process worse with further layers of bureaucracy.
“The Government may be patting itself on the back by announcing a target date for all high-rise buildings in Government-funded schemes to have been remediated; however, the Building Safety Fund first opened for registrations in June 2020, so a target date of nine years from then is underwhelming.”
