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The UK government may miss its deadline for cladding removal if progress is not made, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO). The report found that up to 60% of buildings still haven’t been identified by the government as having dangerous cladding, and that the government was due to miss its own completion date of 2035 for the works if it continued at its current rate of progress. The NAO report follows the conclusion of the Grenfell Inquiry in September, which found “systematic dishonesty” from those who made and sold the cladding involved in the fire in west London in 2017.
The report assessed how quickly the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was replacing dangerous cladding from tower blocks in England and aimed to provide an update to a previous NAO report in 2020. Although there had been “a substantial increase in remediation activity” since then, with 4,771 buildings being brought under the government’s remedial works scheme as of August, an estimated 7,200 more buildings in England with such cladding had still not been identified. Progress was also slow, with work only being completed on roughly a third of identified buildings.
The NAO recommended that if progress with identifying buildings with dangerous cladding did not improve by the end of 2024, the government should consider other measures. These include mandatory registration for medium-rise buildings under the Building Safety Act 2022, tougher enforcement activity, and action to help with disputes between residents and building owners. The watchdog also highlighted that there were issues with keeping taxpayers’ contributions to the works capped at £5.1bn.
Following the report, the Greater London Authority said that more than £1bn has been paid out to take dangerous cladding off tower blocks in the past six years, with 58% either fully remediated or with work underway. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the Budget that the government would invest more than £1bn for repairs to buildings with dangerous cladding in 2025-26, including new investment to speed up remediation of social housing. The head of the NAO said that “there is a long way to go before all affected buildings are made safe
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