Residents still in dark on Grenfell fire cladding

RESIDENTS living in private high-rise buildings in Glasgow have still not been told if their homes have cladding similar to that blamed for the Grenfell Tower inferno – a week after the disclosure was made.

Council officials have claimed they are still trying to collect all relevant information and so have not told the owners of the 57 properties that have combustible cladding.

However, Glasgow City Council’s leader, Susan Aitken, last night apologised and said she was ‘reasonably certain’ the information would be provided to Scottish Government and council officials by the end of this week.

Around 80 people are believed to have perished in the Grenfell fire in London on June 14. The blaze prompted the Government to set up a ministerial working group which has found similar cladding in universities and hospitals. But last week Glasgow City Council disclosed that 57 privately owned high-rise buildings had been found to have the cladding.

This was only announced during a Holyrood committee meeting, with the council accused of a ‘cover-up’ following the decision not to inform the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service or ministers of the find.

Yesterday, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart was questioned by MSPs over the issue and he assured them that city officials had pledged to provide ‘clarity’ on the nature and extent of the cladding by the end of this week.

But the council admitted they are yet to tell residents if they are living in buildings with the potentially combustible cladding and failed to say when they will find out.

Scottish Conservative housing spokesman Graham Simpson said the local authority had ‘dragged its heels for weeks’ and called for residents to be told if they were living in buildings with the cladding.

He added: ‘All other councils were able to provide the information on which private blocks had Grenfell-type cladding without much fuss, so Glasgow has no excuse. They have still to tell residents in the affected blocks and that is unacceptable.

‘The council is on probation as far as running the building verification scheme is concerned, and has been warned it may lose that work.

‘The council’s first duty is to serve the people of Glasgow, not to keep vital information to itself.’

Mr Stewart confirmed he had received an email from Government officials sent to help compile the information ‘which says they are on track to complete the necessary work by the end of this week’.

Last night, Miss Aitken spoke out on the matter for the first time since the revelations. She said the problem had been down to miscommunication and apologised to all those involved.

She added: ‘This problem came about because information that was incomplete emerged prematurely, for which I can only apologise to anyone who has been alarmed or distressed by that happening.

‘That should never have happened but once it did we had to make sure the problem was not compounded by other incomplete information.

‘My task over the past week has been ensuring we have the fullest possible amount of information and we are in a position to tell people what is going to happen and when it’s going to happen.’

‘Council’s duty is to serve the people’