No ‘definitive timeline for fixing unsafe high-rises’, says Deputy PM Rayner

We spoke to the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner to ask her what commitment she can give to the families of Grenfell victims that her government will implement the recommendations put forward in the Grenfell inquiry’s final report.

Angela Rayner: It wasn’t just one part of a system. It was every single bit of the system systematically failing people. And for me, the first absolute priority of any government is to keep its citizens safe. And this is an element of that as well. And that means that we’ve got to do more. Those recommendations, the 58 that were part of that report yesterday, we have to look at them now, like the Prime Minister says. And those that we could do more quickly, we will, but we will look through those recommendations and do everything we possibly can to make sure that people are safe in their own homes.

Jackie Long: You will know that the families feel they’ve waited long enough and that they want these recommendations as part of the legacy of their lost ones to be implemented as soon as possible. Can you give them no timeline on that?

Angela Rayner: Whilst there have been changes that have been made and many of those changes, to the credit of those that have bravely fought for it, for not just about what happened to themselves and their loved ones, but for people who today are still living in high rise blocks that need this remediation work to be carried out. That change for me has not come quickly enough, in particular around remediation.

Jackie Long: What can you tell them about how quickly you will speed things up on this remediation?

Angela Rayner: Well, first of all, there are 4630 high rise buildings that have been identified that need remediation. And in the seven years since Grenfell, we have 50% of them that are in the process of remediation, with only 29% of those that have had it completed. That to me is incredibly slow and far too slow.

Jackie Long: So what timeline will you give them as the new government?

Angela Rayner: I can’t give a definitive timeline today. My promise to them, it will be as quickly as I can make that happen. I’m looking at all the different levers to make that happen. There is funding available. I do not accept for these building owners currently… they know that they need to do this work. Legal notices have been set out already. I will take whatever more powers and whatever more legal action that we need to take as a government to speed up this process.

Jackie Long: Keir Starmer said yesterday that companies condemned in the report, who we heard operated a policy of systematic dishonesty, will not get future government contracts. Is that a firm commitment?

Angela Rayner: These companies that have been highlighted in the report for dishonesty, as you rightly say, this wasn’t ‘we didn’t know’, some companies even being quite arrogant about their products, they shouldn’t be having government contracts.

Jackie Long: Are you aware or are you quite confident that there are no current contracts with those companies?

Angela Rayner: I’m aware in my department that there isn’t, and it’s important that we look across all of the departments of government and we ensure that we don’t use those companies.

Jackie Long: If there are contracts currently being operated by these companies who’ve been condemned in the inquiry, should those current contracts be ended immediately?

Angela Rayner: The Prime Minister has been very clear that the government should not be doing business with people that have acted in a disgraceful way.

Jackie Long: If there were current contracts operated by these companies, you’d end them right now?

Angela Rayner: We will be looking at those contracts and making sure that they’re terminated.

Jackie Long: The people who lived at Grenfell Tower, they told us again and again, and it was confirmed by the inquiry, that they were treated as second class citizens. I mean, you grew up in social housing yourself. Do you recognise what they said?

Angela Rayner: It made me angry that they were treated so poorly. And not only that, they were raising concerns to the tenant management organisation, which is there to be their voice, being completely dismissed. These people were treated so appallingly. That says something about what type of society we are and the stigma that we attach, and that’s where we have to put a mirror up to ourselves and say about treating people with common courtesy and dignity and respect.

Jackie Long: You’re still incredibly rare to have reached this level of government and to have lived in social housing, and perhaps that’s part of the problem. They understood that because they lived in social housing, because they lived in a tower block, they were expected to take what they were given and be grateful. Do you recognise that? And you recognise the need that we have to change that?

Angela Rayner: I hear that all the time. I see it on my timeline sometimes. If you look on my social media, people will say, if you’re an asylum seeker or if you’re in social housing, ‘well you’re getting given something. So you should just be grateful with what you’re being given’. People should expect to feel safe in our country and safe in their own homes, regardless if private tenant or regardless if in social housing. These people were absolutely failed by every institution. The fact that profit and greed and de-regulation was put ahead of safety, for me is something that has to fundamentally change.