Local authorities need ‘multi-year funding arrangements’ if they are to remove dangerous cladding by the end of 2029, council chiefs have said.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner today launched the Government’s new Remediation Acceleration Plan, which sets out new targets to ‘fix unsafe buildings in England’.
According to the plan, all dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings must be remediated or have a completion date set for ongoing work by the close of 2029.
Rayner said the pace of remediation has been ‘far too slow for far too long’ and promised there would be significantly tougher penalties for those refusing to act.
Cllr Heather Kidd, chair of the Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said councils needed more support from central government to take effective action.
‘[F]or local government to carry out enforcement and addressing cladding issues as effectively and quickly as possible, multi-year funding arrangements are needed,’ she said.
‘Councils are keen to remediate the buildings they own that have dangerous cladding, but they need access to the necessary funding to do so on the same basis they had to remediate ACM cladding.’
