It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Boris Johnson to keep track of the many different revolts within his own party. There are the groups pressuring the government on its response to coronavirus, on its treatment of Northern seats, and on Brexit. Now there’s a new row brewing on a completely different matter: cladding.
As Emma Byrne recently explained, this scandal has been building for months, but ministers seem to be doing very little about it. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of people stuck in properties which have flammable cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower. Many of them are facing eye-watering bills of tens of thousands of pounds because as leaseholders, they are liable for the work to remove the cladding. They cannot sell their homes because the properties are currently deemed unsafe and therefore have no value.
There’s a damning report out today from the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee which criticises the government’s failure to support these people adequately.
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