The Royal Institute of Britsh Architects has criticised the British government for its "naive" decision to only fund the removal of Grenfell-style cladding on housing over a certain height.
RIBA fire safety expert Jane Duncan said she was "frankly shocked" that there will only be funding to remove dangerous cladding material from buildings over 18 metres (six storeys.)
No funds for lower buildings
UK housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced the scheme for removing unsafe cladding on 10 February 2021, with £3.5 billion allocated for affected high-rise buildings over six storeys tall.
"Whilst additional funding to speed-up cladding remediation on residential buildings above 18 metres must be welcomed, I am frankly shocked by the Government's continued underestimation of the scale of our building safety crisis," said Duncan.
Jenrick said he had consulted with fire safety experts and concluded that buildings between 18 and 30 metres high should be prioritised.
Leaseholders living in buildings between 11 and 18 metres will have to take out a government-backed loan to cover the cost of removing cladding deemed to be a fire risk in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Developers of residential properties will be taxed £2 billion over 10 years to contribute to fixing subpar cladding.
"Fire does not discriminate by height"
But critics including the RIBA have argued that the government must do more.
"Fire does not discriminate by...