Thread by @PeteApps

Ok, so here is a short thread on what this data really shows which is:

1. We are now making steady (but still slow) progress on ACM remediation ONLY
2. The wider problem of building safety won't be solved until there's up front funding

https://twitter.com/mhclg/status/1352353522780676096

So first, what do these numbers relate to? We're talking here about ACM cladding (the material on Grenfell) on towers above 18m only. That constitutes 462 buildings. And 216 of them (46%) have now been remediated.

This is a TINY FRACTION of the building safety crisis which incorporates an estimated 2,500 buildings over 18m of other types and an as-yet-uncounted number of medium rise buildings. Govt doesn't even record stats showing progress on these.

Even with this, you could spin these stats as saying "less than half of buildings with Grenfell-style cladding remediated three and a half years after fire". But unsurprisingly, MHCLG has picked a different line.

Of the 462, 156 are social housing towers and 54 are student housing. These are the easiest to fix because you (should) have a professional building manager and there's been public funding available since May 2018.

The government's brag is that the last two social housing blocks and the last one student block STARTED work in December meaning all are now onsite. That's obviously good, but does the beg the question as to why they've waited 3.5 years from a fire which killed 72 people.

Of the 214 private buildings, we have 64 complete, 112 onsite and 38 yet to start. Again, the line could easily be "less than a third complete", but government is keen to not to emphasise this point. Bear in mind, their completion target for all these buildings was June 2020.

What the stats clearly do show is (finally) some forward momentum. 75 buildings completed in the year and 159 got onsite. This is good news and shows an end may finally be in sight for this subsection of the building safety crisis. BUT...

... the reason for the forward momentum is that this is first full year when we've had public funding in place for all buildings that needed it. What these stats prove is that you CAN get the process moving but only when you provide the finance up front.

Government initially refused to put any central govt funding into removing ACM cladding until Grenfell United pushed them into releasing £400m for social housing in May 2018, and cladding campaigners pressured them to release £200m for private housing in May 2019

Before this point, progress was basically stalled. Ministers were calling on buildings owners to "do the right thing" and building owners were threatening to pass costs to leaseholders. Sound familiar?

So really, we see from this that steady cladding remediation is possible (with careful management) once the funding question is resolved. I would suggest that should be a lesson for the government, not a brag.

I'd add to this that the govt say they have focused on ACM because it poses a unique risk. All I'll say for now is this is something you can only say if you close your eyes to several inconvenient facts, but it would take another 20 tweets to explain properly.