A quango set up in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire is hampering the removal of dangerous cladding from other tower blocks, a report warns today.
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) was set up two years ago in a bid to prevent a repeat of the disaster which claimed 72 lives in 2017.
The body was handed responsibility for regulating the construction and repair of all high-rise buildings.
But a new report today warns the move has created so much red tape it is preventing residents improving their homes, slowing the construction of new housing – and even hampering the removal of potentially dangerous cladding.
The report by the House of Lords industry and regulators committee says the creation of the regulator was a ‘necessary and welcome step’ following the Grenfell tragedy.
But peers say they received ‘consistent and repeated complaints’ that the body is taking nine months to consider construction projects – three times the legal target.
And although the body was originally designed to deal with major projects, it is now handling even minor issues, such as replacing a toilet in an existing flat, causing huge costs and delays for residents.
In a withering verdict, the report says: ‘In many cases, this has delayed or disincentivised refurbishments, safety upgrades and the remediation of dangerous cladding in high-rise buildings, leaving residents in unsafe buildings for longer and increasing costs for leaseholders.’
A quango set up in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire is hampering the removal of dangerous cladding from other tower blocks, a report warns today (File image of the Grenfell disaster)
The report also warns that delays at the BSR have ‘hampered the delivery of the new homes that the country needs, slowing progress towards the Government’s target of building 1.5million new homes’.
Former Labour Cabinet minister Ann Taylor, who chairs the committee, described delays at the BSR as ‘unacceptable’.
She added: ‘It does not improve safety to delay vital remediation and refurbishments, nor to deter the delivery of new housing in high-rise buildings.
‘We expect to see further action from the Government and the BSR to ensure that construction projects in high-rise buildings can be brought forward more quickly, without compromising on vital safety improvements.’
Long delays in repair work have proved a nightmare for many tower block residents.
Gile Grover, of End Our Cladding Scandal, told the committee that people living in unsafe buildings have been through absolute hell’, facing falling property values and rising insurance costs, and they ‘are still trapped and are desperate for work to start’.