Councils permitted to rip cladding from private buildings

The government has given councils permission to rip Grenfell-style cladding from high rise buildings and then claim cost from landlords.

The housing secretary has acted after months of warnings to landlords, some of whom have failed to produce plans to remove the dangerous cladding and some of whom have threatened to pass costs on to tenants/leaseholders.

According to the Guardian, 289 privately owned buildings have been identified as using similar ACM (Aluminium Composite) cladding to Grenfell. Just 40 of these have had panels removed or started to be removed. A further 147 have plans to do so. The newspaper reports that the status of 102 buildings remains unclear.

The government has said it will provide money for councils to the start the work on the basis those councils will be able to reclaim the money from property owners.

It has banned all types of combustible cladding including ACM in all new buildings over 18 metres containing flats, residential care homes, dormitories in boarding schools and student accommodation.

Housing minister James Brokenshire said "My message is clear: private building owners must pay for this work now or they should expect to pay more later.”

Corrections: (1) The first line of this article previously read 'The government has banned given councils permission to rip the Grenfell-style cladding from high rise buildings and the claim cost from landlords'. Several errors have been corrected. (2) The fourth paragraph previously suggested that government would reclaim money from landlords but this power has been given to councils. This has been corrected. (3) Spelling and stylistic errors fixed.