Ali lost the brief after it came to light that she had attended a conference sponsored by a cladding firm linked to Grenfell

Alex Norris has been was appointed building safety minister after Rushanara Ali quit the role on 21 October. 

Before becoming building safety minister, Norris was minister for local growth and democracy within the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities.

Prior to the election, Norris was the shadow fire minister.

During a building safety and resilience debate in Parliament last month, Norris said “we will demand responsibility for building safety—responsibility from this government and responsibility across the industry”.

He added that the pace of remediation of unsafe cladding has been “too slow”.

Norris said that had the Chamber known “we would still be in the same situation seven years later [after Grenfell], I think we would have considered that we had failed. That is very much the case, and this Government intend to address the failure”. Norris has also acknowledged the significant financial and emotional impact that the slow pace of change in building safety reforms has had on leaseholders, particularly regarding the “extreme insurance premiums” they are facing.

Currently 4,821 residential buildings in England that are 11 metres or higher contain unsafe cladding. According to recent government data, remediation work has either begun or been completed on 50% of these buildings.

>>See also: Housing secretary demands faster action on remediation of buildings following blaze

The National Audit Office is due to publish an update on MHCLG’s progress overseeing the remediation of unsafe cladding this autumn. This follows its previous investigation in June 2020, which described progress as “unacceptably slow”.

Ali departed after concerns were raised about her attendance at the Franco-British Colloque conference, which was sponsored by Saint Gobain, the parent company of Celotex, whose combustible insulation products were criticised in the Grenfell Inquiry.

Ali remains in her role as the homelessness minister, but has given up the building safety brief, acknowledging that “ trusted relationships between ministers and the Grenfell community are essential for this department”

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