The National Audit Office published its report, Dangerous cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio today, 4 November.
The report shows that the cladding crisis is worse than expected, with more homes and other buildings still clad with flammable materials. Remediation is slow and might take until 2037 – twenty years after the Grenfell Tower fire – until the risks are dealt with.
The NAO has found that are an estimated total of 9,000-12,000 buildings of 11 metres or higher with unsafe cladding that require remediation.
Seven years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, by August 2024, only 4,771 number of these had been identified for remediation, and only 1,392 completed works.
The report reveals that the government does not know how many low-rise buildings (below 11 metres) have dangerous cladding.
Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary said:
The facts that thousands of residential buildings remain wrapped in dangerous cladding is a national disgrace. We stated from day one that this was a failure of government due to the obsession with deregulation.
The developers and construction firms must be made to pay the costs of remediation and the process needs to be speeded up. Tenants, residents and firefighters should be part of the oversight of the work."
