Up to 4,500 mid-rise buildings in London could have unsafe cladding five years after the Grenfell tragedy, new estimates reveal. Labour’s London Assembly Fire and Resilience Spokesperson, Anne Clarke AM, urged the Government to support people living in residential blocks of all heights and called for proper funding for the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to tackle the building safety scandal. Ms Clarke wants compensation for leaseholders who have already paid out of their own pocket to fix potentially deadly fire risks.
A total of 1,100 of London’s buildings above 11 metres are currently listed by the LFB as having serious fire safety issues. While this represents a slight drop from 1,174 in March, the capital has had more than 1,000 unsafe buildings for almost a year.
And the real number of unsafe buildings could be much higher.
Remediation work for up to nearly 8,000 11-18 metre mid-rise buildings with external fire risks in England, could cost up to £5.4 billion, Government data shows - that doesn’t include any internal fire-safety issues. Almost two thirds of the nation’s mid-rise buildings are in London, so up to an estimated 4,500 will need work - at an average cost of between £640,000 and £790,000 per building, or roughly £3.5bn.
These new figures don’t include buildings above 18 meters and the Government’s support for leaseholders excludes those living in unsafe buildings below 11 metres.
Assembly Member Clarke AM wants to scrap the building safety support height rule to protect all Londoners living in dangerous buildings. At the last Mayor’s Question Time, in response to a question from Ms Clarke, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, stated: “I think the height requirement should go, either your building is safe, or it isn’t”.
At a development in Colindale, in Ms Clarke’s constituency, residents live in properties with fire safety defects. But while some parts of the development fit into the Government’s height specifications, other parts do not. Ms Clarke said it has left fate of leaseholders “very different in terms of finances and stress levels” depending on which building they were “lucky, or unlucky, enough to buy in” but it had been a “long, hard battle for all concerned”.
Many leaseholders have been stuck for years in unsafe properties that they cannot afford to fix or have already been hit with huge bills and paid out significant sums as a result. In response to a question from Ms Clarke, the Mayor said people that have already paid to fix fire-risks should get compensated after they have had to “beg, borrow and steal” to pay for remediation.
At a City Hall Plenary meeting in February, LFB Commissioner Andy Roe, said that to inspect just 10% or 20% of London's approximately 95,000 mid-rise buildings for fire safety defects the LFB must recruit a "significant labour force" of “a couple of hundred” additional specialist fire safety inspecting officers. He also said that there is an £8 million budget gap expected for the LFB in 2023/22.
According to analysis from the Fire Brigades Union, London has lost over 1,100 firefighters since 2010, due to Government austerity.
The Building Safety Bill was finally passed last month – nearly five years after the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people. However, many of the measures in the new act will take between a year and 18 months to introduce.
Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Michael Gove, has stated developers will pay for mid-rise buildings between 11 and 18 metres with dangerous cladding. Funding has been provided for 8,500 high rise buildings above 18 meters in London.
Blocks below 11 metres that have been deemed in need of remediation work will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, but the Government would stop short of providing blanket protection under the Building Safety Bill, the Housing Minister, Stuart Andrew, revealed in the Commons last month.
Labour’s London Assembly Fire and Resilience Spokesperson, Anne Clarke, AM, said:
“Nearly five years on from the Grenfell tragedy it’s completely unacceptable that so many Londoners are living in unsafe homes.
“Ministers must extend remediation support to all residential buildings with safety defects or combustible cladding. Regardless of height, if leaseholders have already paid, they are owed compensation.
“Londoners are being let down. They’re dealing with this on top of an unprecedented cost of living crisis. It’s disgusting so many have been left to sit with this hanging over their heads.
“This is a building safety scandal, not just a cladding scandal. The Fire Brigade needs more funding from the Government so it can recruit hundreds of specialist fire safety officers to make London safe.”
Notes to editors
- Anne Clarke AM’s question to the Mayor can be watched here at the 2:30:00 mark;
- Figures obtained through a written question to the Mayor of London reveal that as of 13th May 2022, the LFB officially currently lists 1,100 building above 11m across London as having a simultaneous evacuation strategy or other safety measures in place due to fire safety concerns. In March, there were 1,174;
- Government research shows that of the mid-rise residential buildings in England, between 71,000 and 79,000 buildings are identified as buildings containing dwellings. Almost two thirds (64%) of mid-rise residential buildings are in London. So, 45,440 – 50,560 must be in London. Of the mid-rise residential buildings, containing dwellings, located in London, 7-9% are estimated to require work to alleviate life-safety fire risks relating to external wall systems. So, an estimated 3,180 – 4,550 could need work. The research on estimating the prevalence and costs of external wall system life-safety fire risk in mid-rise residential buildings in England can be found here.
- According to analysis from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), London has lost 1,112 firefighters since 2010 due to Government austerity;
- Details of the Building Safety Bill can be found here;
- Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pledged that leaseholders living in buildings taller than 11m in height will no longer need to foot the bill for the remediation of dangerous cladding;
- A report of housing minister Stuart Andrew’s comments in the Commons is available here;
- Anne Clarke AM is the London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden.