Accelerating remediation for buildings with unsafe cladding in England

[edit] Background

On 4 November, 2024 the National Audit Office published a report 'Dangerous cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio', in the report they highlighted issues with cladding remediation programmes, transparency and target dates. The NAO’s report followed the publication of the Grenfell Inquiry in September, which examined the root causes of the fire in June 2017 that resulted in the deaths of 72 people. In the report the NAO examined how well MHCLG is maximising the identification of unsafe buildings, driving progress with remediation works and managing these.

The report had two key recommendations, saying the government should publish a target date for ending cladding remediation works, and should provide greater transparency on remediation performance. It highlighetd that up to 60% of buildings with dangerous cladding have not yet been identified, and that the remediation for buildings within government’s portfolio is slow. The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) modelling had indicated that an end date of 2035 for completing cladding remediation, but without any published milestones, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents having no idea when their building will be made safe.

It highlighted that most leaseholders are now protected from remediation costs, residents often continue to suffer significant emotional and financial distress.With a total estimated costs of £16.6bn and the Building Safety Levy yet to start, the reported highlighted the risks of keeping taxpayer contributions capped at £5.1bn.

[edit] Five programmes one portfolio

The UK’s independent spending watchdog comments that is recommendations feature in what is first report on government remediation since five different programmes were brought together into a single portfolio in 2023. The five programmes being:

• The ACM programme: which has been indicated as cloosing soon. Represents grant funding to support remediation of buildings over 18m with ACM cladding, made up from the Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (PSCRF) and the Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (SSCRF).
• The Building Safety Fund (BSF): Now closed outside of London, represents funding to support remediation of high-rise buildings with non-ACM flammable cladding.
• The Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS): Grant funding to support remediation of buildings over 11m outside London and 11–18 metres inside London, via Homes England, appointed to stream and automate the scheme.
• The Developer Remediation Programme, plus the Developer Remediation Contract and Responsible Actors Scheme from 2023 seeking oversight of self-remediation activity by developers.
• The Social Housing Programme (from summer 2023) to monitor self-remediation in the social housing sector.

[edit] A plan for increasing the pace of remediation of buildings with unsafe cladding in England

'Following the publication of the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report in September 2024, the government committed to setting out measures to increase the pace of remediation.

This plan sets out the steps that this government will take, working with partners including the Building Safety Regulator, Homes England, the Regulator of Social Housing, metro mayors, local authorities and fire and rescue authorities, to:

• increase the pace of building remediation
• identify buildings at risk
• better protect residents and leaseholders

The plan will set out a series of measures for overcoming the most significant barriers that have been identified as slowing the remediation process.

In support of work to achieve the ambitious new targets to accelerate remediation, developers and government have published a joint plan to accelerate developer-led remediation and improve resident experience.

Under the joint plan, developers have committed to their own stretch targets. Achieving those would require developers to more than double the overall rate at which they have been assessing and remediating buildings in 2024.'