The UK’s property developers acted like “cowboys” in the lead-up to the 2017 Grenfell fire, according to Michael Gove.
The housing secretary also told a Westminster committee yesterday that he’s “unhappy with the principle of leaseholders having to pay” to replace dangerous cladding in their buildings in a signal government policy could soon change on the issue.
It is estimated that around 56,000 people in the UK still live in buildings with aluminium composite material (ACM) – the same cladding that was used in the construction of Grenfell Tower – with potentially more than 1m living in buildings with other unsafe cladding.
The government this year announced a £5bn fund that will see combustible cladding removed in all high rise buildings of 18 metres or taller, while also setting up a loan scheme to help leaseholders remove dangerous cladding in smaller buildings.
However, Gove said the government may have to “pause” and rethink the leaseholder loan scheme.
Gove said: “I’m unhappy with the principle of leaseholders having to pay … no matter how effective a schemes at capping their costs. Why do they have to pay at all?”
When asked about who was to blame for the amount of unsafe cladding in high rises, Gove said: “The sheriffs might not have been on the ball but the cowboys were behaving like cowboys in an unregulated way.”
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