Consultation on the residential property developer tax

The Grenfell Tower tragedy (14 June 2017) caused 72 deaths and more than 70 serious injuries. Four years on many hundreds of thousands of people are still living in homes that are clad in aluminium composite material (ACM). It is made from polyethylene plastic sandwiched between two very thin sheets of aluminium; and as unfortunately we now know is highly flammable. The obvious solution is to remove and replace this cladding but how these works should be paid for and by whom has a less obvious answer.

There has been much speculation as to who should foot this bill – government councils cladding manufacturers property owners who installed ACM – although the general consensus is that leaseholders in affected towers should not be the ones to bear the financial cost.

New measures against dangerous cladding

In February 2021 the government ended this speculation...