Most of the Conservative MPs who responded to Robert Jenrick’s statement this afternoon about an extra £3.5 billion to help with the cladding crisis sounded relieved that the government is finally doing something. But if ministers think that the response in the Chamber means they can relax, they are in for a bit of a shock.
The two most active Conservative MPs on this issue are Stephen McPartland and Royston Smith, and neither spoke in the Commons after the announcement. But both have been critical elsewhere. McPartland called the policy – which will only offer loans to leaseholders in blocks between 11 and 18 metres high – a ‘betrayal’ and accused the government of ‘shocking incompetence’. He added: ‘It is clear the Prime Minister has to step in’.
Ministers have only acted now because pressure has finally built to the extent that they’ve needed to announce something
Smith was more emollient, calling it ‘progress’, but added that ‘it’s not going to help all those affected or protect the effects on the housing market’.
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