New Multi-Billion Fund for Cladding Remediation Is Only Partial Fire-Safety Solution

The Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick MP, yesterday announced in Parliament the launch of a new £3.5 Billion fund for the remediation of dangerous, flammable cladding. While this intervention is certainly to be welcomed, it must be noted that it represents only a partial solution to the crisis that has caused turmoil in the housing sector since the Grenfell fire.

The new funding is provided with a restrictive set of caveats that limit the use of the available money only to removing and replacing ACM wall cladding, and only on buildings above 18m in total height. For blocks below 18m, leaseholders are to be offered loans to fund their cladding remediation works.

Clearly, there are many more issues involved in the fire-safety scandal than merely dangerous cladding. The ongoing Grenfell inquiry and the completed Hackitt Review have highlighted myriad concerns such as flammable insulation, missing fire breaks, ineffective safety doors, combustible balconies, and much more. The funds announced yesterday are not able to be used to resolve any of these grave problems.

Coupled with the EWS1 debacle and the mortgage industry’s perfectly understandable reluctance to expose themselves to adverse risk, if these non-cladding fire-safety concerns are not resolved it is difficult to see how the hundreds of thousands of homeowners currently trapped in unsellable homes will be able to draw much satisfaction from yesterday’s announcement.

As ever, the only way to guarantee a fire-safe future is for all combustible materials to be removed and replaced. We seem a long way still from that goal.