'Too much buck passing' says minister as she slams 'unacceptably slow' cladding repairs

A government minister has slammed the 'unacceptably slow' speed of cladding repairs on high-rise buildings during a visit to Manchester.

Building Safety Minister Rushanara Ali said there had been 'too much buck passing' between developers, builders, manufacturers, owners and others as it was revealed more than half of the unsafe buildings in Manchester were still waiting for repairs.

Ms Ali was speaking during a visit to the Linx Building, a block of flats in the Northern Quarter, alongside Manchester Central MP and fellow cabinet minister Lucy Powell. Work replacing the flats' unsafe cladding is finally getting underway as part of the Government's £5bn Cladding Safety Scheme.

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Earlier this month Andy Burnham revealed that seven years on from the Grenfell fire which killed 70 people, there were still 157 unsafe high-rise buildings in Greater Manchester. The Mayor urged the government to pay for the work needed to make these buildings safe now and charge the property industry later.

Ms Ali, who also visited The Peony Project for homeless women during her visit to Manchester, said: "People deserve to live in safe and secure homes. Yet the pace of remediation has been unacceptably slow.

"The Linx Building in Manchester, through the Cladding Safety Scheme, is seeing finally positive steps towards getting remediation works underway. However, there is a lot more work to do across the country.

"In Manchester alone, more than half of the buildings identified for remediation are still waiting to be fixed. We know the government must do more - and we will.

"But there has been too much passing the buck between manufacturers, freeholders, developers, and organisations that all have a responsibility to make sure buildings are safe. Those responsible need to get on with the job of fixing their buildings.

"We will not hesitate to take building owners to court if they fail to act, and will set out further measures to ramp up the pace of remediation in the autumn."