Work to end Grenfell cladding scandal to take another three-and-a-half years, data suggests
The removal of dangerous cladding from high-risk buildings is unlikely to be complete until seven-and-a-half years after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, government data suggests.
The timeframe has been projected from analysis of the latest monthly figures released by the recently renamed Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHC).
If work continues at the current rate, it will take several more years for the cladding to be removed from all buildings identified as being at high risk.
The Grenfell Tower fire happened in June 2017, with 72 people losing their lives.
Workmen remove cladding from a block of flats in Paddington, north London
According to data from September, 168 buildings are still being worked on and 30 are not even under way. Some have had their cladding removed, but not yet been signed off.
Last December, there were 45 buildings that still had unsafe cladding and where no work had started, with some 201 buildings still undergoing work to remove ACM cladding.
Since then, 61 buildings have had cladding removed – but only £79m of the government’s £200m funding pledge to support private leaseholders with the work has been spent so far.
In February, then-housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced a further £3.5bn to “end the cladding scandal”, but the government was immediately criticised for only offering loans for the removal of cladding on smaller buildings
The government says DLCH Secretary Michael Gove is looking “afresh” at the issue to ensure work is being done as soon as possible, but critics have said the current projected timescale is unacceptable.
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February: Cladding victim warns of ‘another Grenfell’
Labour said the government had “missed every deadline and broken every promise” regarding the pledges it made following the Grenfell tragedy.
The Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson for housing, Tim Farron, said it was an “utter disgrace” that the work could take until the end of 2024.
Mr Farron has called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to put the removal of cladding at the heat of next week’s budget.
“People deserve to live in safe homes, yet years after an avoidable tragedy, the government is shamefully dragging its feet and turning its back on tenants and leaseholders,” he said.
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May: Fire rips through cladded tower block
Campaigner Giles Grover, from the group Manchester Cladiators, said those affected were being “betrayed by the government’s continuing warm words and vague promises that are never backed up with firm action on the ground”.
“The government completely failed to meet its initial ACM remediation target date of June 2020 and subsequently pushed this back to the end of 2021,” he said.
“Yet, at this rate, that deadline will have to be pushed back once again, meaning thousands of people in those buildings are still trapped in limbo.”
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February: ‘Leaseholders will face no cost’ for cladding removal
A DLHC spokesperson said: “We will not compromise on building safety, and building owners must take swift action to fix dangerous cladding. The government will fund every eligible application to the Building Safety Fund.
“So far we’ve processed over 600 building applications, with estimated remediation costs of £2.5bn, and we are progressing the remainder as quickly as possible.
“Of high-rise residential buildings identified as having unsafe ACM cladding at the beginning of 2020, 97% have been fully fixed or have works under way, backed by over £5bn.
“The new secretary of state is looking afresh at work in this area to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect and support leaseholders, and he will not hesitate to take further action if necessary.”
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Only 20 of the 181 Bitcoin service providers registered with El Salvador’s central bank are operational, with the rest failing to meet the country’s requirements under its Bitcoin Law.
Local media outlet El Mundo cited data from the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador, showing that 11% of the service providers are operational. According to the central bank’s database, the rest of the providers are classified as non-operational.
The data showed that at least 22 non-operational providers have failed to meet most of the country’s Bitcoin Law requirements, which mandate that providers implement stringent supervision of their financial systems.
Most of El Salvador’s Bitcoin service providers are non-operational
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law requires providers to maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program, keep records that accurately reflect the company’s assets, liabilities and equity and have a tailored cybersecurity program depending on the nature of its services.
The data showed that 89% of the registered providers have failed to meet some of these obligations to be classified as operational.
Still, a few firms have satisfied the legal criteria, including the state-backed Chivo Wallet and companies including Crypto Trading & Investment and Fintech Américas.
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El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment
In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender along with the US dollar. This move made Bitcoin integral to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s economic strategy.
However, the Central American country recently signed a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $1.4 billion loan in exchange for rolling back some of its Bitcoin-related efforts. Under the agreement, taxes will be paid in US dollars and public institutions will limit their use of Bitcoin.
On March 3, the IMF asked the country to stop its public sector Bitcoin buys. Still, Bukele said the government will continue to purchase Bitcoin, seemingly contradicting its IMF deal.
The IMF deal prompted speculation about whether the country would rescind Bitcoin’s status as legal tender. John Dennehy, an El Salvador-based Bitcoin activist and educator, said in an X Space with Cointelegraph that a rollback law changing Bitcoin’s legal status is set to take effect on April 30.
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Tech giant Meta has been given the green light from the European Union’s data regulator to train its artificial intelligence models using publicly shared content across its social media platforms.
Posts and comments from adult users across Meta’s stable of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, along with questions and queries to the company’s AI assistant, will now be used to improve its AI models, Meta said in an April 14 blog post.
The company said it’s “important for our generative AI models to be trained on a variety of data so they can understand the incredible and diverse nuances and complexities that make up European communities.”
Meta has a green light from data regulators in the EU to train its AI models using publicly shared content on social media. Source: Meta
“That means everything from dialects and colloquialisms, to hyper-local knowledge and the distinct ways different countries use humor and sarcasm on our products,” it added.
However, people’s private messages with friends, family and public data from EU account holders under the age of 18 are still off limits, according to Meta.
People can also opt out of having their data used for AI training through a form that Meta says will be sent in-app, via email and “easy to find, read, and use.”
EU regulators paused tech firms’ AI training plans
Last July, Meta delayed training its AI using public content across its platforms after privacy advocacy group None of Your Business filed complaints in 11 European countries, which saw the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) request a rollout pause until a review was conducted.
The complaints claimed Meta’s privacy policy changes would have allowed the company to use years of personal posts, private images, and online tracking data to train its AI products.
Meta says it has now received permission from the EU’s data protection regulator, the European Data Protection Commission, that its AI training approach meets legal obligations, and the company continues to engage “constructively with the IDPC.”
“This is how we have been training our generative AI models for other regions since launch,” Meta said.
“We’re following the example set by others, including Google and OpenAI, both of which have already used data from European users to train their AI models.”
Related: EU could fine Elon Musk’s X $1B over illicit content, disinformation
An Irish data regulator opened a cross-border investigation into Google Ireland Limited last September to determine whether the tech giant followed EU data protection laws while developing its AI models.
X faced similar scrutiny and agreed to stop using personal data from users in the EU and European Economic Area last September. Previously, X used this data to train its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok.
The EU launched its AI Act in August 2024, establishing a legal framework for the technology that included data quality, security and privacy provisions.
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South Korea is expanding a ban on digital asset firms’ applications servicing its citizens. On April 11, the country’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that 14 crypto exchanges were blocked on the Apple store. Among the affected exchanges are KuCoin and MEXC.
The report, which was made public on April 14, says the banned exchanges were allegedly operating as unregistered overseas virtual asset operators. The report also states that the Financial Information Analysis Institution (FIU) will continue to promote the blocking of the apps and internet sites of such operators to prevent money laundering and user damage.
The request to block applications on the Apple Store comes after Google Play blocked access to several unregistered exchanges on March 26. KuCoin and MEXC were also targeted during the blocking of the Google Play apps. The FSC published a list of 22 unregistered platforms operating in the country, with 17 of them already blocked on Google’s marketplace.
The 17 crypto exchanges blocked on Google Play. Source: FSC
According to the FSC report, users will not be able to download the apps on the Apple Store, while existing users will not be able to update the apps. The FSC notes that “unreported business activities are criminal punishment matters” with penalties of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 50 million won ($35,200).
FIU considers sanctions against unregistered VASPs
On March 21, South Korean publication Hankyung reported that the FIU and the FSC were considering sanctions against crypto exchanges operating in the country without registration with local regulators. The sanctions included blocking access to the companies’ apps.
In South Korea, operators of crypto sales, brokerage, management, and storage must report to the FIU. Failure to comply with registration and reports is subject to penalties and sanctions.
Related: South Korea reports first crypto ‘pump and dump’ case under new law
The latest sanctions come as crypto is reaching a “saturation point” in South Korea. As of March 31, crypto exchange users in the country passed 16 million — equivalent to over 30% of the population. Industry officials predict that the number could surpass 20 million by the end of 2025.
Over 20% of South Korean public officials hold cryptocurrencies, with the total amount reaching $9.8 million on March 27. The assets varied and included Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Dogecoin (DOGE).
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