Burnham calls for government to cover upfront costs of remediating 157 unsafe high rises in Manchester

The government should fund the remediation of unsafe cladding on 157 high-rises in Manchester and recover the costs from the property sector later, Andy Burnham has said.

Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday morning, Burnham said that out of 700 high-rise buildings in Greater Manchester, the largest concentration outside of London, 157 (22%) are in “interim measures”.

This means they are recognised as not being fire-safe but have not yet been remediated, with many residents relying on waking watch systems.

Burnham emphasised, “this is seven years on from Grenfell”. He added that 110 buildings have been fully remediated since 2017 and 122 are currently undergoing work.The mayor of Greater Manchester said that a different approach needs to be taken and is asking the government to think about that, “rather than fighting this case-by-case with every different property developer”.

He said the government should find the funds to pay upfront for the remediation of all buildings, and then put “a charge” or windfall levy on the property industry.

He added: “You cannot leave people year after year, month after month, day after day, where they’re going to sleep thinking ‘am I safe?’”.

Burnham has also called for a Grenfell Law, which would make having “a good safe home” a human right.

>> See also: Remediation of unsafe cladding on 2,300 residential buildings yet to start

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

After the fire at a high-rise in Dagenham on 26 August, and the publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report on Wednesday this week, the housing secretary, Angela Rayner said that work nationally to remediate buildings with unsafe cladding must be sped up. This followed official figures showing there are 2,331 unsafe buildings where remediation work has yet to start.

In a statement to parliament on Wednesday, the prime minister, Keir Starmer said the speed at which unsafe cladding is being addressed is ”far, far too slow” and said that the government will take the “necessary steps” to speed up the process.

He said the government is willing force freeholders to assess their buildings and enter remediation schemes within set timetables and set a legal requirement to force action if that is what it takes to tackle ”industry intransigence”.