Labour calls for ‘turning point’ in cladding scandal as it warns up to 11 million people could be affected

Starmer says all homes should be made safe by next year

Kate Devlin

Whitehall Editor

Sunday 31 January 2021 13:16 EST

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Keir Starmer to force Commons vote on dangerous cladding and ‘intolerable’ costs for residents

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Sir Keir Starmer has called for a “turning point” in the cladding scandal and urged ministers to make all homes safe by next year.

His call comes as Labour releases an analysis it has carried out of official data, which the party says suggests up to 11 million people could face being left with “life changing” repair costs or unsellable properties.

Labour will force a non-binding vote in the Commons on the issue on Monday – more than three-and-a-half years after dangerous cladding was blamed for fuelling the fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017, which claimed the lives of 72 people.

Although it will not compel ministers to act, Labour hopes the vote will show the strength of feeling across political parties on the issue.

Labour wants a new, legally enforceable deadline of 2022 to make all homes safe.

The party is also calling for a new National Cladding Taskforce, modelled on a successful approach taken in Australia, to prevent leaseholders bearing the cost.

Minsters should also provide immediate funding to remove potentially deadly cladding from blocks and pay for other urgent fire safety measures, the party says, as well as legislation to protect residents from costs.

The party says a new analysis it has carried out of figures from the New Build Database and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests the cladding scandal could be even larger than previously imagines and affect up to 11 million people in the UK.

Not all will have flammable cladding on their blocks. Instead, some will have other fire safety issues which have been identified as a result of inspections looking for cladding.

Others will be unable to sell at the moment because of demands from mortgage lender around inspections, sources said.

Sir Keir said the Commons vote “needs to be a turning point for those affected by the cladding scandal. Millions of people have been sucked into this crisis due to years of dither, delay and half-baked solutions from the government”.

“For many leaseholders, the dream of home ownership has become a nightmare. They feel abandoned, locked down in flammable homes and facing ruinous costs for repair work and interim safety measures.

“I urge Conservative MPs to vote with us in Parliament today and put their constituents’ safety and security first. And I urge the government to get a grip of this crisis through a national taskforce and by implementing Labour’s six demands.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said:

“Leaseholders shouldn’t have to worry about the unaffordable costs of fixing safety defects in high-rise buildings that they didn’t cause – and should be protected from large-scale remediation costs wherever possible.

“We all want to see homes made safer, as quickly as possible and backed by our £1.6bn funding we are making good progress on remediating unsafe homes.

“The Building Safety Bill is the appropriate legislative mechanism for addressing these issues and will be brought forward in due course.”

Update - 18.2.21: Subsequent to the publication of this article, fact-checking organisation Full Fact has disputed the Labour Party claim that up to 11 million people are affected by this issue. Full Fact says the number is closer to one tenth of that figure - see the Full Fact report here.