<p><span>There are still 2,000 residential buildings with some form of dangerous cladding, according to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, which calls for the government to take over buildings where unsafe cladding has not been removed.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>Launching its report on the progress of remediation on high risk buildings, the committee stated that the government’s recently launched £1 billion Building Safety Fund would only cover the cost of remediating a third of the 1,700 buildings needing attention, and needed to be increased.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>The committee urged ministers “to make an absolute commitment” to ensuring all buildings of any height with ACM (aluminium composite material) cladding are fully remediated by December 2021, and for those with other forms of unsafe cladding to be made safe by June 2022.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>It added that residents could not be expected to continue to meet “the exorbitant costs” of temporary fire safety measures until remediation work was complete. The government should instead support funding for ongoing “waking watch” fire patrols and fire alarms.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>And, the committee stated, any residential building where work has not begun by December 2020 should be taken over through Compulsory Purchase Order powers. Alongside this, the government should consider creating a new national …