Cladding Safety Victoria reveals more dangerous buildings are being discovered in audit

The cladding crisis that has plagued the construction industry shows no signs of slowing down with more discoveries of flammable cladding on apartment buildings emerging. Now experts fear the cost of the taxpayer funded rectification package will continue to blow out.

Apartment buildings covered in flammable cladding are still being discovered, meaning the Andrews Government will likely have to top up its $600 million rectification package.

Authorities currently have 406 buildings on their radar with dangerous cladding that will be removed as part of the taxpayer-funded program, announced by Premier Daniel Andrews last month.

But Cladding Safety Victoria boss Dan O’Brien revealed yesterday (FRIDAY) that the final number of buildings needing repair work would “certainly be north of 500”.

Asked how much more it would cost, he said it was a “fair question but it’s one I can’t answer at this point in time”.

Premier Daniel Andrews with Planning Minister Richard Wynne. Picture: David Crosling (AAP)

The $600 million fund is enough to cover an average of $1.2 million in works on 500 buildings, although costs are expected to vary significantly depending on the size of the properties, the amount of cladding used and the risk to residents.

Cladding Safety Victoria, the agency set up by the government to handle the crisis, is currently working on removing cladding from 15 buildings which will provide templates for future rectification works.

Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s spokeswoman said those buildings had been prioritised “to begin with” and that the government had funded “$600 million worth of works for dangerous cladding cases”.

Lacrosse Tower in Docklands where developers used flammable cladding, causing a fire which was started by a cigarette butt.

Opposition planning spokesman Tim Smith said he had warned that the $600 million fund would only cover “the tip of the iceberg”.

“Dan O’Brien has finally begun to disclose the enormity of this problem and it shows Labor’s Planning Minister Richard Wynne and the building regulator, the VBA, have been misleading Victorians on the size and huge cost of rectifying thousands of apartments with dangerous combustible cladding,” Mr Smith said.

So far, 793 apartment buildings have been identified with combustible cladding, of which 406 have been deemed high-risk.

The Victorian Building Authority’s Matt Vincent, who is in charge of the statewide cladding audit, said last month that another 500 buildings were due to be checked.

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He said that while it was “getting harder and harder to find” dangerous buildings, the final number “will go up substantially” and there were “absolutely more buildings to be found”.

The government is funding half of the $600 million package, with the other half coming from increases to the building permit levy over the next five years.

It is understood the government will consider the need for further funding if the need arises.

@tminear