More than UK£ 5 billion to replace flammable building cladding, announced by the UK Government may still not be enough. The UK has promised a further £ 3.5 bn funding to help owners remove non fire safe cladding materials from buildings > 18m high, adding to £ 1.6 bn already allocated (pinfa Newsletter n°116). Many flat-owners face huge bills for fire-safety improvements resulting from inspections launched after the Grenfell fire, 2017. Campaigners say that the £ 5.1 bn funding announced to date is still inadequate, does not help owners in buildings lower than 18m and does not address other fire-safety work needed, such as non fire safe wooden balcony materials (see Barking De Pass fire in pinfa Newsletter n°103) or missing fire breaks. The new funding aims to limit flat owners’ payments to “only” UK£50 per month (but for how many years?) and will be funded by a new tax on new high rise buildings and a new tax on all UK residential property. This demonstrates the huge cost of using non-conform and non fire-safe materials in construction.
The UK Government has also announced UK£ 10 million to establish of a new regulatory body, within the OPSS (Office for Product Safety and Standards) to “encourage and enforce” compliance with construction fire safety requirements.
“Cladding: Extra £3.5bn for unsafe buildings ‘too little, too late’”, BBC, 10 February 2021 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56013464
“Grenfell: New body to ban dangerous building materials after inquiry”, BBC, 19 January 2021 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55722159