Theresa May blames last Labour government for flammable tower-block cladding

Theresa May has pointed the finger at the last Labour government for the cladding of tower blocks in flammable material.

During Prime Ministers Questions Ms May wrongly claimed that tower block cladding had “began under the Blair government”.

Tower-block re-cladding has in fact been taking place since at least the 1980s, pre-dating the Blair government by around a decade.

The Prime Minister also cited changes in regulations introduced by New Labour, suggesting they were relevant to the new revelations about cladding following the Grenfell Tower fire disaster.

“The cladding of tower blocks did not start under this government, it did not start under the previous coalition government. The cladding of towerblocks began under the Blair government,” she told MPs.

“The right honourable gentleman talks about local authority resources and talks about changes to the regulation. In 2005 it was a Labour government that introduced the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order which changed the requirement to inspect a building on fire safety from the local fire authority – usually the fire brigade – to a responsible person. Laws which took effect in 2006 ended the practice of routine fire service inspections, passing the responsibility to councils.

“That is why I say to the right honourable gentleman that this should be an issue that across this house we should recognise that this is a matter that has been developing for decades, occurred under governments of both colours, under councils of all political persuasions, and is something which I would hope we will say we will come together and ensure that we get to the answers of why this has happened over many years what has gone wrong, and how do we stop it from happening in the future.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Government had been warned by two coroners’ reports to change regulations in the seven years the Conservatives had been in government.

“There have been two coroners’ reports, building regulations have not been overhauled, and local authorities, whilst asked to act upon them, have had their budgets cut by 40 per cent during that same period,” he said.

“Under her predecessor fire safety audits and inspections were cut by a quarters, fire authority budgets were cut by a quarter.”

The Government has ordered the testing of tower block cladding following the Grenfell disaster in which at least 79 people are feared to have been killed.

As of Wednesday cladding from 120 high-rise buildings in 37 local authorities have failed testing – a 100 per cent failure rate.

Local authorities and housing associations have re-clad many of their tower blocks over the last few decades in an attempt to improve heating insulation and appearance of the buildings.