Former housing secretary Robert Jenrick has claimed he fought the Treasury to get more cash for the cladding crisis.
Jenrick, who was fired from the post in a cabinet reshuffle last month, said he had “fought a battle” with the Treasury to secure more money for leaseholders but it was “unwilling” to spend more to resolve the issue.
MPs have estimated that the cost of fixing all fire-safety problems in high-rise buildings would be around £15bn. The government has committed only £5bn to remove cladding from the tallest apartment blocks.
Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Jenrick said the choice for the government was what the balance should be between the state paying and developers and leaseholders meeting the costs.
He acknowledged that leaseholders had been left with a bill running into billions, saying that the only way to fix that would be for the taxpayer to step in and massively increase that £5bn fund. “At the moment – I fought this battle for a couple of years – the Treasury… is simply not willing to do that.”
