Forty-five towers yet to receive cladding remediation

According to recent government figures, all high-rise buildings in the social sector and student buildings are now fully remediated or have work underway to remove unsafe ACM cladding.

Importantly, 95% of the highest risk buildings with unsafe cladding similar to the one found on Grenfell Tower have been made safe or work has begun when compared to this time last year.

In total, 159 buildings were worked on last year compared to 90 in 2019. This is a big shift and demonstrates a willingness from those in power to make sure that a Grenfell-type situation does not happen again.

Thirty-one buildings were worked on and completed between the months of November and December 2020 which is the highest monthly increase of the whole year.

Of the 45 buildings which are yet to receive remediation, 13 were identified last year and 7 are vacant as well as not posing a risk to the safety of residents.

The Grenfell Tower tragedy led the Government into launching a large-scale programme that aimed to identify any high-rise buildings in England with unsafe cladding that is similar to that found on Grenfell. These homes have been prioritised for any remediation work. The Government also launched the Building Safety Fund, a £1bn scheme that had allocated just under £100m to projects as of January 15th.

Building safety minister, Lord Greenhalgh, believes that building owners are responsible for ensuring a building’s safety and it is ‘unacceptable’ that a minority are yet to start any remediation work.