Replacement of dangerous cladding lags behind schedule

High rise residential building of flats with cladding being replaced with fire resistant materials (Image: Richard Johnson via AdobeStock - stock.adobe.com)

That’s according to a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) that examines the remediation of potentially unsafe buildings in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster. A fire at Grenfell Tower in London, which was clad with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, killed 72 people.

After the fire, there were concerns that other multi-occupancy residential buildings could suffer a similar fate, as tests revealed that the use of ACM and other combustible forms of cladding was widespread across England.

The NAO’s report found that MHCLG’s programme to remediate tower blocks over 18 metres tall with the most dangerous form of cladding are now complete or nearing completion.

But the NAO explained that the scale of what it called the ‘cladding crisis’ is much bigger than the government initially understood and its interventions have expanded as a result.

MHCLG has estimated that 9,000 to 12,000 buildings over 11m tall will need remediating, of which 4,771 have been identified and included within its portfolio. Another 60% of affected buildings have still to be identified.

Of those identified, work has yet to start on half of them and only around a third have been completed. Of all the buildings in potentially in scope, work has only been completed on 12-16%.

The government established a principle of ‘polluter pays’ where the cost of remediation works are met by those responsible to reduce pressure on public finances. Last year, it also established a £5.1 billion fund to fix the most dangerous buildings, while putting a tax on new developments called the Building Safety Levy.

However, the NAO warned that the ‘polluter pays’ approach “created grounds for lengthy disputes” between the developers of the buildings and the freeholders of the properties over the scope of works required.

Its report said, “To stick to its £5.1 billion cap in the long run, MHCLG needs to ensure that it can recoup any funds it spends above this through successful implementation of the Building Safety Levy. MHCLG has been slow to address fraud risks and must ensure its incentivization and enforcement activities encourage reluctant freeholders to engage and ensure the industry is not stalling.”

It added, “Several years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, there has been progress, but there also remains considerable uncertainty about the number of buildings needing remediation, the cost of remediating them, and how long it will take to fix them and to recoup spending in the long run.”