A fire in an east London tower block should be a “wake-up call” Labour said on Tuesday as they called on the Government to set a hard deadline to fix the post-Grenfellcladding crisis.
The party wants the Government to give developers one year to remove unsafe and combustible cladding and carry out all necessary remediation work.
It has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s Speech which argues that the Government has failed to put an end to the building safety crisis and threatens to make the situation worse for leaseholders by putting the cost of removing unsafe cladding on them.
Shadow housing secretary Lucy Powell said the fire two weeks ago was at New Providence Wharf which is “covered in the same cladding as Grenfell”.
She told Sky News: “Just two weeks ago we had a terrible fire in the New Providence Wharf in East London that was covered in the same dangerous cladding that Grenfell tower was covered in and really this should now be a real wake up call for the government that it’s got to act with a much greater sense of urgency.”
The Government has earmarked £5billion to fund work to remove cladding. However, leaseholders in lower-rise buildings face bills of up to £50 a month for the removal of unsafe materials.
