There is a shared desire in Parliament to ensure that absolutely everyone in our society lives somewhere decent, safe and secure. We are united in that commitment, and our thoughts naturally turn to the still unimaginable tragedy of Grenfell Tower. It should not have taken such a deadly fire, with such a terrible loss of life and suffering, for us to face up to the failures of building safety that have built up over decades under successive Governments. I supported all the legislation brought under the last Conservative Government Parliament through the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Building Safety Act 2022 to ensure this happens.
The Removal of Cladding
The Government are meeting the cost of taking down unsafe non-ACM cladding on residential buildings in the private and social care sector above 18 metres through the £1 billion Building Safety Fund, giving building owners no excuse not to start this vital work. The Building Safety Fund will be available to pay for the removal of cladding of buildings where the building owners aren’t able to fund the cost, for example through their warranties or insurance. This will ensure leaseholders in the private sector who would otherwise face significant costs do not need to foot the bill for making their buildings safe.
The Government also extended the deadline for building owners to complete applications to the £1 billion Building Safety Fund, meaning thousands more buildings will have cladding removed without the cost falling on leasehold residents.
Following the Grenfell tragedy, the Government made £600 million available to fund the removal of ACM cladding from all types of building over 18 metres. Working with building owners, the Government have made good progress with 90 per cent of buildings with ACM cladding either now having had it removed or begun the work to do so. In the social rented sector this is 100 per cent. Taken together with the £1 billion Building Safety Fund, the Government have made a total of £1.6 billion available to fund the removal of dangerous cladding.
Keeping people safe in their homes
Our Building Safety Act will drive up building safety standards and ensure there is greater responsibility for the safety of all buildings-particularly high-rise residential buildings. Taken together with our Fire Safety Act, our response to the Fire Safety consultation and other measures across Government, these measures will make high rise buildings safer and ensure people are protected from fire wherever they live, stay or work.
The Governments new regulator, the Building Safety Regulator, will implement a more stringent regulatory regime for high-risk residential buildings. It will also oversee the safety and performance of other buildings and support enforcement action against building owners who don’t ensure their properties are safe.
The Fire Safety Act will enable the recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase one report to be implemented. This will ensure buildings owners and managers of high-rise and multi-occupied residential buildings take on new responsibilities and give additional powers to fire and rescue services to enforce the new regulations, and has been welcomed by the National Fire Chiefs Council.
The Government’s changes to building safety regulations will ensure sprinklers are installed in all high-rise blocks over 11 meters and that wayfinding signage is consistent to keep people safe and ensure that if a fire does occur, people are better protected and know how to get out safely.
The Grenfell Inquiry shone a light on the dishonest practice by some manufacturers of construction products, including deliberate attempts to game the system and rig the results of safety tests. A new regulator for construction products will have the power to remove any product from the market that presents a significant safety risk and prosecute any companies who flout the rules on product safety.
Supporting Leaseholders
There is no reason why work to remove cladding should not have started or for huge costs to fall on leaseholders. The last Conservative Government was clear that building owners are legally responsible for ensuring their buildings are safe, and they must, as a matter of urgency, either use Government funding, work with the contractors who provided unsafe materials or rely on their own resources or warranty schemes to deliver this work right away. The Government put £1.6 billion into getting unsafe cladding removed from homes–targeted at those least able to pay–so there is no excuse for delay.
The Government established a relationship with the owner of every building with ACM cladding and are spending £600 million to have it taken down and replaced, with interim safety measures introduced where needed. Every building in the social sector has either had the cladding removed or the work has, at the very least, been scheduled; this is true for nearly all privately owned buildings and the Government have been absolutely clear that the work had to be completed by the end of 2021.
There is no quick fix. If there were, the Government would have done it long ago. It is complex and it involves many parties: leaseholders with different leases, developers, warranty holders, the insurance industry, the mortgage lenders, and the owners themselves. The last Conservative Government worked with all parties to find a workable solution to fix cladding once and for all, and I will continue to support cross-party efforts to ensure tragedies like Grenfell can never happen again.