Grenfell: owners of blocks with dangerous cladding to be named

Owners of apartment blocks who refuse to remove dangerous combustible cladding will be named and shamed as part of new post-Grenfell safety measures, after ministers admitted that progress to make homes safe from fire had been “unacceptably slow”.

The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, told the House of Commons on Monday that “inaction must have consequences” as he admitted that building safety problems meant there was a “risk of further loss of life”.

He said the government would from next month start naming those responsible for buildings where works to fix tower blocks wrapped in Grenfell-style combustible cladding have not yet begun. He said they would only be removed from public lists when works began, and more public funds could be released to help.

Jenrick also announced:

• The appointment of Dame Judith Hackitt to lead the creation of a new national building safety regulator, which will make building owners criminally liable for safety.

• A ban on the use of combustible aluminium composite material on new buildings of any height, instead of just residential buildings over 18 metres.

• A reduction in the height of new residential buildings required to have sprinklers from 18 metres to 11 metres.

• All building owners must check the combustibility of external walls and apartment front doors for the first time.

But with works yet to start on 143 privately owned tower blocks amid disputes over whether leaseholders or freeholders should pay bills as high as £80,000 per household, Labour said the moves were “too little, at least two years too late”.

The shadow housing secretary, John Healey, said the third anniversary of Grenfell was coming in June “and still [we] will not be able to say to people with confidence a fire like Grenfell can never happen again”. Labour has called for Boris Johnson to take personal charge of a national taskforce to audit high-rise blocks and require works to be done, starting with higher-risk buildings. It estimates that around 10,000 buildings need to be checked.

Since the Grenfell disaster on 14 June 2017, which claimed 72 lives, leaseholders nationwide have faced additional service charges of hundreds of pounds a month to pay for 24-hour fire patrols and have reported stress, anxiety and feeling trapped as their homes have become unsellable.

Others have seen fivefold increases in building insurance premiums, according to Rituparna Saha, founder of the UK Cladding Action Group, while people in shared ownership properties are being asked to foot 100% of the recladding bill even if they own only 40% of their home.

Last July ministers announced a £200m fund to help break the deadlock between leaseholders and freeholders, but so far only one grant has been awarded. The government missed its target of fixing all the 157 social housing tower blocks found to use the aluminium composite material by the end of last year, with works yet to be completed on 77 blocks and yet to start on 14.

“It is clear problems have developed over many decades leading to serious incidents and the risk of further loss of life,” Jenrick said. “This is entirely unacceptable … There has been progress, but it has been unacceptably slow.”

West Yorkshire fire and rescue service last month threatened to shut down 13 high-rise apartment blocks because of fire safety issues.

Stephen Timperley, 28, owns one of the affected apartments in a building in Leeds Dock found to have been built with combustible high-pressure laminate cladding in breach of building regulations.

Residents are footing the £4,700 weekly cost of 24-hour fire wardens required to keep it open and face an unknown bill to replace the cladding, which is expected to run into tens of thousands of pounds per owner.

“I feel terrified and I feel trapped,” Timperley said. “I was a first-time buyer and I put most of my savings into this. Now I can’t sell the property and our lives are on hold. It feels hopeless.”

In Manchester, leaseholders campaigning under the banner of the “Cladiators” said that more than 30 apartment buildings were affected by fire safety problems.

At the Skyline building in Manchester, residents had been offered interest-free loans by the freeholder to cover the cost of safety works, but repayments are adding £400 a month to residents’ outgoings. Residents can’t sell and in at least one case, are even cutting back on the amount of food they buy, said resident Fran Reddington.

“Sales are falling through and people are trapped,” she added. “We know of instances of people not being able to start a family or move for a new job.”