Government Exposed on Cladding Scandal

On Monday, the Opposition exposed the failings of the Government in dealing with the cladding crisis. MPs from across the House of Commons criticised the Government for failing to act to make millions of leaseholders safe and to free them from the fear of bankruptcy.

1300 days after the Grenfell tragedy, the Government still does not know how many flats have dangerous cladding, or how many millions of families are living in fear.

In Liverpool, I know there are an estimated 8000 people affected by unsafe cladding – and the distress and anguish being felt in our community as a result of this is difficult for me to do justice to.

People are living and sleeping in fear, and when they wake up, they feel threatened by the financial costs. I am a member of the Housing Select Committee and we have heard harrowing evidence from people trapped in dangerous flats.

Residents are sleeping with fire extinguishers next to their beds and are having to pay hundreds of pounds a month for “waking watch” staff to patrol their buildings at night.

Making a flat safe can cost up £50,000 and the Government, so far, has refused to assure residents that they will not have to pay. How many families can simply write a cheque for this amount? Families receiving benefits are not even allowed to have savings of this amount.

Rituparna Saha from the UK Cladding Action Group told us:

“I would summarise my life as pretty much a living nightmare. I have spent every single waking moment when I am not working my day job trying to figure out how to make my home safe without going financially destitute. Unfortunately, my experience is not an uncommon one; it is shared by thousands of people just like me.”

“We are constantly anxious, both for the safety of our families living in these dangerous buildings and also the pretty much blank cheque that we are being forced to write to fix defects that were not of our making.”

So far the Government has committed £1.6 billion pounds, but this is only 10% of the amount needed.

Developers, who ignored fire safety, and cladding manufacturers, who knew their cladding was not safe must be held responsible and must be made to pay.

Families who live in flats cannot be expected to pay, when developers and cladding manufacturers have made huge profits by ignoring basic safety measures.

While the Government is dragging its feet on making flats safe, there is still not enough progress on ensuring that there are proper evacuation plans from buildings.

Urgent action must be taken to ensure that, in the event of a fire, residents know exactly what to do to leave the building safely.

I asked the Minister how the Government sleep easily in their beds, knowing that thousands of leaseholders cannot sleep at all?

I am still waiting for an answer.