‘Government will respond to Grenfell inquiry recommendations within six months’ – Housing Minister

The Prime Minister has promised to respond to the report’s recommendations, pledging to force action to remove dangerous cladding where necessary. Only last month, the government revealed that 4,630 buildings still have unsafe cladding, leaving thousands of residents living in fear of another Grenfell.

Jackie spoke to the Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook about the government’s response to the report and the demands from Grenfell United. But began by asking whether this is a shaming moment for the country.

Matthew Pennycook: I think that would be a fair assessment to make. We always knew the report would be damning, but it is quite shocking to see it set out in black and white. As you say, both the pernicious industry practice, but also the failure of government in terms of overseeing a fragmented and deficient regulatory regime.

Jackie Long: Now, the prime minister gave a powerful statement today, apologising first and foremost, accepting that the country let the families of Grenfell down. The question now is what does your government do? How quickly does it implement these recommendations? Can it promise it will implement all of them?

Matthew Pennycook: What needs to happen now, in the aftermath of it, is the pursuit of justice to proceed, so that very large, legally complex Met police investigation to proceed at pace. We want to see justice secured for the survivors, for the bereaved and the wider community. But you’re absolutely right. Government needs to act both in terms of speeding up the pace of remediation, but what more we need to do across the board to ensure that all homes are made safe. And we will be looking at each of the recommendations very carefully and acting on them, reporting back within the next six months as to how we intend to respond to each.

Jackie Long: What the families said to me today is that both government, and you in opposition, talked about speeding up, accelerating the process of making homes safe. Those homes where we know thousands of people are going to bed tonight with unsafe cladding on their buildings. They want to know that that is going to be done really quickly. What sort of timetable can you put on that?

Matthew Pennycook: You’re absolutely right. They want and they deserve to know that that remediation action is going to take place quickly, because the pace of remediation across the country over recent years has been glacial. And we need to turn that around, which is precisely why we’re going to issue a remediation action plan later in the autumn that sets out very clearly how we think we can speed up the pace of remediation across the country, because far too many people, including many tens of thousands of leaseholders, are trapped physically and mentally in their properties. They’re paying, in many cases, huge financial secondary costs for being in those properties. And we absolutely are determined, absolutely are determined to speed up the pace of remediation across the country.

Jackie Long: We understand exactly what the problem is. But the families are saying to me today – in opposition, you’ve known what the problem is. You yourself said over a year ago that it had to be accelerated. Why do you not have a plan to be put into progress right now?

Matthew Pennycook: Well, there’s lots of work that needs to take place to pull that strategy together, if I’m honest. And we’ve discovered things on taking office just over eight weeks ago that we weren’t even clear about. For example, we don’t know precisely the number of buildings that might have combustible cladding on them. So there is an absolute job of work to do in terms of speeding up the remediation. But I think people across the country living in these buildings can be assured…

Jackie Long: Even though this is a problem you have been looking at in opposition?

Matthew Pennycook: We have been looking at it in opposition, but we don’t have access to all the data that you do in government. We’ve been in office for eight weeks. The prime minister set out today a number of steps that we intend to take in the short term. We’re going to respond to each of the recommendations that the inquiry made within the next six months, as quickly as possible as we can, and we’ll be bringing forward that plan in the autumn.

Jackie Long: The prime minister talked today about banning any companies who have been condemned by the Grenfell Inquiry, from getting new contracts. Does that extend to companies who may have contracts right now?

Matthew Pennycook: Well, the Prime Minister made very clear in the statement earlier in the House of Commons that he intends to write to those companies cited in the report as a first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts. And that’s absolutely the right thing to do.

Jackie Long: Understood. But just on the point that Keir Starmer has made today about any companies condemned – not getting future contracts, if they are not fit for future contracts, they’re not fit for current contracts, are they? So would you anticipate ending contracts that are currently in place?

Matthew Pennycook: Well, it’s my understanding that the four companies cited in the report don’t have existing contracts. I think what the Prime Minister was alluding to today was writing to those companies as a first step to stopping them getting future government contracts.