An east London council has secured a legal order against a private building owner in the borough to remove Grenfell-style cladding from a high-rise block of flats.
Tower Hamlets Council said it had secured a remediation order against an unnamed private building owner requiring it to swiftly remove the cladding in what it said was the first case of its kind.
The local authority said the order, against a freeholder in Stepney, was the first of its kind in the UK under the terms of the Building Safety Act 2022.
Aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding was found by a public inquiry to have been a key cause of the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017 which killed 72 people.
Under the order, if the building’s owners do not remove the cladding within a set time period, they could be pursued through the courts.
Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman said: “It is shocking that seven years after the devastating Grenfell Tower fire there are still high-rise buildings clad in ACM in this country.
“I believe everyone deserves to live in a safe and secure home in Tower Hamlets and this action proves we will do everything within our power to get this."
“We are taking this approach with other private building owners who are failing to remove dangerous cladding from their buildings and we expect to secure more orders in the near future.”
It comes after ministers set a new deadline of 2029 for remediation on buildings over 59ft (18m) tall with unsafe cladding.
The Government says by then buildings over 36ft (11m) tall with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated or have a date for completion.
Building owners have been warned they could face jail if they fail to comply.
Building safety minister Alex Norris told Sky News: “I would want people who own buildings that are watching this, who have not been remediating them, to know we are on them, we are after them, and we want those buildings remediated. And if they don’t, they will feel the force of the law.
“We have a range of powers already, ranging from fines to prison sentences, that can be used in health and safety cases.
“We will use that basket of tools in whatever way with each building to get it resolved. We have committed that that will be the case by the end of this decade.”
There are around 4,000-7,000 buildings with flammable cladding which have not yet been identified, according to estimates.
