Expert criticises buck-passing on cladding after London tower block fire

Work to remove dangerous cladding from buildings needs to be “ramped up”, a Government minister has admitted, after a major fire engulfed a multi-storey property in east London with “known” safety issues.

Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves acknowledged the “incredibly difficult” experience for residents of the block in Dagenham after more than 200 firefighters responded to the Bank Holiday Monday blaze.

The property in Freshwater Road was undergoing “remedial” work to remove and replace “non-compliant cladding” on the fifth and sixth floors containing flats, according to a planning application document.

This is really about people passing the buck, passing it up the chain, a lack of ownership, and actually pinning people down to do the right thing that they know they need to do

Dame Judith Hackitt, who led a Government review on building safety after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, said it is “really concerning” that so many people are still living in uncertainty and fear about their homes and that it was “very lucky” nobody died in Monday’s blaze.

Grenfell United , which represents many of the bereaved and survivors of that fire, said the incident in Dagenham “highlights the painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole”.

The group added that, a week ahead of publication of the final Grenfell Tower Inquiry report, “the fact that when a fire happens, the best we can hope for at the moment is ‘a near miss’, speaks volumes of the progress made since”.

Dame Judith told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s really concerning to me that so many people are left with this level of uncertainty and fear about the safety of the buildings they’re in. I mean, we can all take great comfort, I think, from the fact that no-one lost their lives yesterday.

“But, nonetheless, it’s a tragedy that those people have lost everything. They’ve lost all their belongings and everything else, and it could happen to other people. So this is a really urgent problem that needs fixing.”

She criticised those who have been “passing the buck” on the issue of fixing buildings seven years on from the Grenfell fire.

She told Today: “The problem of who pays and whether it was Government’s job to fix was resolved, and Government has put up billions to fix the buildings that are rented to people, but in the leasehold case, that also has been fixed now.

“So this is really about people passing the buck, passing it up the chain, a lack of ownership, and actually pinning people down to do the right thing that they know they need to do.”

Dame Judith said the onus is now on Labour to ensure those responsible for remediation are held to account.

“A new Government must find ways, I think, of stepping up the pace on remediation and holding those who are responsible to account for doing so.”

Government figures at the end of July showed that of the 4,630 residential buildings in England of 11m (36ft) or higher that had been identified with unsafe cladding, only around half (2,299) were noted as having either started or completed remediation works.

Of this, less than a third (1,350) overall were recorded as having completed such works.

I know that the housing minister is looking at this and remediation work needs to be ramped up

Cabinet Office minister Ms Reeves said housing minister Matthew Pennycook will be taking a close look at the issue.

She told the Today programme: “My heart goes out to everyone that has been affected by that fire, I know it will be incredibly difficult for the residents of that block.

“We want remediation work to be ramped up, and I know that the housing minister will be looking at that really, really closely.

Pressed on when remediation work will be completed, Ms Reeves said: “It’s important that developers are doing what they ought to be doing in relation to remediation works, and where they are not action is taken.

“My understanding is that in blocks with Grenfell-style cladding, something like 88% of remedial works have been completed. There is further to go in blocks with other sorts of cladding that need remedial work.

“But, as I say, I know that the housing minister is looking at this and remediation work needs to be ramped up.”

Dame Judith said that, while there is a “gradation of levels of risk” depending on the height of a building, that “does not mean that those buildings of lower height are not part of that urgent stock of buildings that need to be fixed and made safe”.

Campaign group End Our Cladding Scandal branded Ms Reeves’ words on the need to speed up remediation as “very much an understatement”.

It also criticised Sir Keir Starmer for having “chosen to not say a word about the building safety crisis since he became Prime Minister, preferring instead to focus on building new homes rather than rescuing ordinary people from this living nightmare”.

The campaigners also highlighted the “sheer lack of progress” on wider building safety, noting that the so-called Grenfell style (aluminium composite material or ACM) cladding “is only a very narrow subset” which does not take into account “the myriad of internal life-critical fire safety defects like inadequate compartmentation, fire-stopping and fire doors that can also allow fire to spread rapidly”.

On Monday, more than 80 people were evacuated and two were taken to hospital after a fire broke out in the building in Dagenham that is used for residential and commercial purposes.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) said it was called to the blaze at 2.44am and 20 people were rescued following a “significant search-and-rescue operation”, with 45 engines and around 225 firefighters responding to the incident.

The fire service said the blaze engulfed the whole building, including scaffolding surrounding the property and the roof, and had been brought under control just after 11am that day.

On Tuesday, LFB said it was still on the scene as fire investigators continue their work to find the cause of the blaze and to support local residents.