Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has pledged that dangerous cladding on residential buildings in England will be removed or repaired by the end of 2029, with the Government claiming a “radical” action plan is underway.
More than seven years after the Grenfell Tower fire claimed 72 lives, Rayner unveiled a “remediation acceleration plan” prioritising buildings taller than 18 metres, with severe penalties for landlords and freeholders who fail to act. However for mid-rise buildings between 11 and 18 metres, unsafe cladding must also be removed or scheduled for repair by 2029, with hefty fines imposed on those who miss deadlines.
“Our remediation acceleration plan will ensure those responsible for making buildings safe deliver the change residents need,” said Rayner. She attacked the slow progress on remediation since Grenfell took place in 2017, adding, “The pace of remediation has been far too slow for far too long.”
This marks the first time the government has set a clear deadline for addressing the cladding issue. However, campaigners from End Our Cladding Scandal have expressed disappointment, arguing the plan adds more bureaucracy instead of delivering meaningful reform.
Rayner acknowledged the frustrations of residents still living in unsafe homes, stating: “More than seven years on from the Grenfell tragedy, thousands of people have been left living in homes with dangerous cladding. We are taking decisive action to right this wrong and make homes safe.”
The plan follows letters from Rayner to organisations responsible for remediation, setting new deadlines for initiating work and warning of consequences of inaction. Since July, the Government has been working with local enforcement agencies, developers, and mayors to address the issue of speed of repairs.
The Government aims to review over 95% of buildings taller than 11 metres by the end of 2025. Developers will be required to double the rate of repairs under the plan, supported by increased investment in enforcement. This will allow councils, fire and rescue services, and the building safety regulator to tackle hundreds of cases annually. Currently, only 30% of at-risk buildings have been remediated, with thousands more yet to be identified.
Giles Grover, from End Our Cladding Scandal, said the Government was adding unnecessary complication: “It’s not really going to make much of a difference on the ground, it’s just making an already complicated approach even more complicated. And to be honest, at this stage, it all feels a bit performative.”
He added: “It doesn’t look like there’s any oversight, you’ve got too many funding schemes rather than a properly joined-up approach. It looks like they’ve just added further layers of bureaucracy; it’s all still too vague.”
Grover called on Labour to revive its 2021 proposal for a Government-funded building works agency, to directly oversee, commission, and fund the necessary repairs. He also highlighted unresolved issues, including the exclusion of smaller buildings under 11 metres and leaseholders not protected from remediation costs. Residents of affected buildings continue to face financial burdens from increased insurance and service charges whilst being unable to sell their homes.
Cladding supplier Vivalda Group has criticised the government’s revised remediation targets as “unrealistic” in light of “chronic shortages of skilled labour and materials.” Founder and chairman Peter Johnson welcomed the objectives of the Accelerated Remediation Plan but warned that a lack of “skilled cladding installers and building safety inspectors will impede progress.”
Johnson also expressed concern about the shortage of approved building inspectors needed to vet remediation projects. He referenced a letter sent earlier this year by Lorna Stimpson, chief executive of LABC, to the Government, in which she cautioned that a “significant number” of local authorities would be unable to provide building control services from April unless deadlines for registration and certification were extended. “We’ve not heard much about this since, but I fear this structural issue has not been resolved in such a short time,” Johnson added.