Cladding Crisis: Jenrick admits he's still not met homeowners

29 October 2020, 09:29 | Updated: 29 October 2020, 09:43

Cladding crisis: Nick Ferrari confronts Robert Jenrick on meeting

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick admits he has still not met with people trapped in homes with dangerous cladding - despite telling LBC he would do so by the end of October.

Millions of desperate people are now trapped in homes with unsafe cladding which has rendered their properties entirely worthless, LBC has found.

The crisis has its roots in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the realisation that thousands of buildings have a similar, dangerous cladding.

Read more: Tearful caller "devastated" as her daughter's home is branded unsellable due to cladding

The Housing Secretary pledged on Nick Ferrari's breakfast show that he would meet with the owners of 'unsellable' homes by the end of October - however on returning to Nick Ferrari's show today, he admitted he still had not.

Nick asked why Mr Jenrick had not been able to facilitate the meeting: "This is three million people, some of them possibly living in fire traps."

"I think it's important we don't have another Grenfell, don't you?"

Mr Jenrick told Nick he understands the gravity of the situation and is working on the crisis "every day" to which Nick responded, "Why no meeting, Mr Jenrick?"

"Well we have had meetings with a whole range of cladding groups...what is important here is we actually take action and don't make false promises that there are easily solutions," the housing secretary said.

He told Nick his department is now approaching 80% of all buildings that have the most dangerous ACM cladding, and those buildings have either had it removed or there are workers onsite de-risking.

He said while he is close to making "other announcements" regarding cladding, he does not want to give false hope.

Nick Ferrari confronts the Housing Secretary over unsellable homes due to cladding

The UK Cladding Action Group have expressed surprise that Mr Jenrick has unfollowed them on Twitter - when asked, Mr Jenrick "didn't know" why that was the case.

"This is of huge importance to them, I think they'd like to be followed and more importantly like to be met," Nick said.

"Understood. We want to talk to and engage with everybody in this situation," Mr Jenrick said.