Commons Sense

Numerous constituents living in buildings with ACM and non-ACM flammable cladding have contacted me, concerned for their safety and concerned about paying the huge remediation costs to replace the cladding covering their buildings. I appreciate and sympathise with the cost, anxiety and stress many leaseholders have endured due to no fault of their own, with many unable to sell or re-mortgage their homes.

Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017, the Government established a Building Safety Programme with the aim of ensuring that residents of high-rise residential buildings in England are safe. However, nearly four years later, around 700,000 people are still living in high-rise blocks with flammable cladding, including in Slough. This is simply unacceptable.

Leaseholders did not design the buildings, they did not certify the building as safe and they did not select the building materials; yet in many cases they are left picking up the bill.

Despite promises that remediation costs would not be passed onto leaseholders, I am concerned that ministers have done little to help. I’m also disappointed that Tory MPs did not back a Labour motion in Parliament, which called on ministers to protect leaseholders and taxpayers from remediation costs, by pursuing those responsible for unsafe cladding.

Just this week, the Government announced that an extra £3.5billion has been promised to tackle unsafe buildings. However, this is a repeat of undelivered promises made a year ago. Last March they claimed “all unsafe combustible cladding will be removed from every private and social residential building above 18 metres high.” This has not happened.

There are still many unanswered questions and leaseholders require clarity. For example, there is still no confirmation that this fund will be applied to houses under 18 metres, or whether the Government will establish an independent task force to prioritise the most dangerous buildings.

If the Government want to take this seriously they must establish a National Cladding Taskforce to address unsafe cladding and protect leaseholders from the costs of remediation.