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Dangerous cladding still in place in Scotland seven years after Grenfell, Scottish Labour says

THE SNP Scottish government has been accused of a “scandalous” lack of urgency after it was revealed that, seven years after the Grenfell disaster, not a single property in Scotland needing cladding remediation has had the work completed. 

Figures released to the Scottish Labour Party today through a freedom of information request show that 107 properties across the country have been identified as having the lethal cladding.

The same cladding turned a fire in a flat at North Kensington’s Grenfell Tower in London into an inferno which burned for 60 hours at the cost of 72 lives, the deadliest civilian fire in Britain since World War II.

Of those identified in Scotland, only 30 have had a full assessment of the work required, just five have seen work to remove the cladding begun, and the Scottish government confirmed that “works to remediate risks have not been completed for any of the entries,” leaving thousands still living in homes clad in flammable material.

Last year, a Holyrood committee report stated that a similar programme in England had made greater progress, noting that of the 1,608 properties deemed to require remediations, 797 (21 per cent) had seen work completed, while a further 21 per cent had works ongoing.

The SNP has managed to spend just £9 million of the £97m passed on by the UK government in 2020 to deal with work identified after the Grenfell fire. 

Scottish Labour housing spokesman Mark Griffin slammed the SNP government’s inaction.

He said: “The SNP’s lack of urgency removing this dangerous cladding from Scottish buildings is nothing short of scandalous.

“Years have passed since the Grenfell tragedy, but by the Scottish government’s own admission, work hasn’t been completed on a single Scottish building.

“The SNP government cannot play fast and loose with fire safety. It must act with the urgency needed to get this dangerous cladding out of Scottish buildings.”

A Scottish government spokesperson stated new Holyrood legislation meant they would be “accelerating the pace of delivery,” saying: “Where a developer or building owner is identified we fully expect them to do the right thing in assessing and remediating buildings to bring them to a tolerable standard of risk.

“We continue to work with stakeholders to understand the risk profile across different categories of building and to gather information on the assessment and remediation activity taking place.”

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