The Government is facing mounting criticism of its response to the cladding crisis in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Despite the Housing Minister announcing a fresh £3.5bn worth of funding to tackle the safe removal of dangerous cladding and insulation materials for buildings over 18 metres tall, industry leaders remain baffled at the Government’s failure to understand or deal with the scale of the challenges and issues.
RIBA Fire Safety Expert Panel Chair, Jane Duncan, said: “Whilst additional funding to speed-up cladding remediation on residential buildings above 18 metres must be welcomed, I am frankly shocked by the government’s continued underestimation and lack of urgency in dealing with the immense scale of our building safety crisis.
“Fire does not discriminate by height. By only agreeing to fund removal of dangerous cladding removal on high-risk residential buildings above 18 metres, and offering a second-rate loan scheme to the desperate owners of buildings above 11 meters, policymakers are continuing to fail thousands of vulnerable people.
“We will continue to call for urgent action to remove combustible cladding on all high-risk buildings, alongside mandatory requirements for alternative means of escape, sprinkler systems and centrally addressable fire alarms.
“We await further detail, but it would be naïve to think these measures alone will solve the terrifying reality that so many people living in unsafe buildings face through no fault of their own.”
The CIOB issued a call last week to the Government, to commit to acting immediately on finding a funding solution which does not penalise leaseholders and leave them burdened with paying, even in part, for historical building safety remediation works, whilst also ensuring that these costs are excluded from the proposed building safety charge.
It says the latest proposals are clearly still placing a burden on leaseholders and are unacceptable.
Caroline Gumble, CEO of the CIOB, said: “The CIOB has been monitoring the issue of cladding and building safety for some time now – it is clearly a matter of public interest and relevant across the breadth of the construction industry.
“While there is no doubt that the construction industry has a role to play in ensuring that a situation such as that which led to the Grenfell tragedy can never happen again, there is also leadership required from government to work with the industry and residents impacted by this issue. It must be remembered that up to 11 million people in the UK are in accommodation that is potentially unsafe and this is causing unnecessary distress to so many, especially with the current lockdown and people literally being stuck in high risk flats.
“The proposals outlined…will only help to alleviate the distress of a fraction of those affected and we need to see a more practical and targeted response from Government, with a solution ensuring that no leaseholders will bear any financial burden for remediation.”
“There is still further detail required on today’s announcement and the CIOB has already highlighted concerns about the impact of the proposals on leaseholders, particularly those living in buildings under 18 metres. The CIOB submitted evidence to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee's pre-legislative scrutiny of the Draft Building Safety Bill last year and its recommendations were incorporated in the Committee's final report. The Government has not yet formally responded to this report.
“The CIOB has observed that work to improve safety and drive up quality has already started among key industry stakeholders, with the CIOB and many of their sister professional bodies being present to support the Hackitt Review and the work that has come out of that.
“The industry has responsibility to help find the solution to this crisis and we are pleased to see that some companies in the housebuilding sector are taking steps in the right direction.”
Gary Strong, Global Building Standards Director for RICS, said upfront funding is something RICS have long called for, and he welcome this announcement.
“We recognise the complexity of the funding mechanisms, however, it is critical that any loan scheme should be affordable and viable,” he continued.
“The lack of affordable professional indemnity insurance (PII) is a very serious problem affecting many professions at this time, creating real world difficulties for consumers. It is especially acute for professionals, such as chartered surveyors, who work in the built environment and are potentially exposed to fire safety related insurance claims.
“RICS has been working intensively with the Government and the insurance industry to highlight the problem and press for a solution. The Government's firm commitment to intervene in the insurance market, through a Government backed PII product is to be welcomed and will, no doubt, increase the number of professionals able to complete external wall assessments, relieving the bottlenecks that currently exist .
“It will mean that the chartered surveying professionals we are upskilling to complete EWS1 forms, creating additional capacity in the market through the EWS assessment training programme, have surety that they will be able to gain PII. This will be welcome news to leaseholders and homebuyers. We will continue to work with all parties to ensure the commitment is delivered on, urgently.
“Alongside (this) announcements, our planned guidance note on the valuation of properties in multi storey residential apartment buildings, is currently in the final stage of development, following the recent consultation. The guidance should help further, as it will support greater consistency among valuers and their lender clients for when an EWS1 form is required, reducing the number of unnecessary delays. We call on lenders, insurers and fire safety bodies to support the guidance when it is issued.”
