ACM High Rise Residential Building Remediation Programme

[edit] Background context

In June of 2017 immediately after and in response to the Grenfell Tower fire, the UK government required social housing owners to compile lists of buildings with ACM cladding and of buildings more than 18 m high and to send samples of the cladding for fire testing. This was followed shortly by a similar letter to the owners, landlords and managers of private residential blocks offering testing of ACM cladding, paid for by DCLG.

Initial small-scale fire tests on specific ACM cladding products such as Reynobond ACM cladding and the Celotex insulation used on Grenfell Tower revealed that both products failed safety requirements. The Detective Superintendent observing the tests at the time said; "The insulation was more flammable than the cladding. Tests show the insulation samples combusted soon after the test started." Further tests were carried out on six combinations of three different types of ACM cladding, with the test results published in August confirming a number of products failing fire safety testing. It was also confirmed that a significant number of social and private sector buildings were clad in the same products that had failed the tests.

[edit] ACM High Rise Residential Building Remediation Programme

At the beginning of 2018 the government indicated it would launch a remediation fund to cover the costs of replacing unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings in England, where no alternative funding solution was available.

The ACM remediation programme now forms part of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Outcome Delivery Plan, which sets out the department’s objective to deliver ‘More, better quality, safer, greener and more affordable homes,’ and more specifically to ‘Support building owners to take action to ensure safety of residents in existing high-rise residential buildings’. The programme continues to sit on the government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) and operates as a major programme in line with best practice standards outlined by the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) and their gateway processes.

At the end of September 2024 the government published its monthly update on Building Safety Remediation, which noted that of the 513 high-rise (18 metres and over in height) residential and publicly owned buildings with ACM cladding systems, unlikely to meet Building Regulations, 490 (96%) had either started or completed remediation works, with no change since the end of August. Of these, 443 buildings (86%) had completed ACM remediation, including those awaiting building control sign-off, an increase of one since the end of August.

There were 23 buildings yet to start ACM remediation (4% of all buildings), an increase of 10 since the end of August. One building being vacant so not a risk to resident safety, eight occupied buildings have forecast start dates, six further buildings have had local authority enforcement action taken against them, and the remaining eight buildings have come into scope in recent months.

In November, 2024 the National Audit Office (NAO) published its report: 'Dangerous cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio' (see article Cladding remediation programmes, transparency and target date). In this it notes of the ACM programme that 'MHCLG said this may soon close to new applications'. The ACM High Rise Residential Building Remediation Programme is covered by two government funds – the Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (SSCRF), and the Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (PSCRF) see below.

[edit] Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (SSCRF)

In May, 2018 the Government announced the Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (SSCRF) which would fully fund the removal and replacement of unsafe ACM cladding on social residential buildings, 18 metres or over, that were owned by councils and housing associations, with costs estimated at £400 million.

The application guidance for the Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (SSCRF) was published in June 2018, with an update in January 2021. In that January up date 2021 it reported that since the fund was launched in 2018, it had funded 140 buildings of 18m and over in the social housing sector with ACM cladding systems in need of remediation. It noted that remediation work had been completed or was underway on the majority of those building and all had interim fire safety measures in place.

In November, 2024 the National Audit Office (NAO) published its report: 'Dangerous cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio' (see article Cladding remediation programmes, transparency and target date). In this report an assessment was made as to whether the SSCRF met the Value for Money test, and it was indicated that it did. This was because without government funding, the necessary remediation work would otherwise have crowded out housebuilding and/or other planned maintenance by social sector providers.

[edit] Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (PSCRF)

In May 2019 the Secretary of State announced that the government would fully fund the removal and replacement of unsafe ACM cladding on private sector residential buildings 18 metres or over, with costs estimated at £200 million via the Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (PSCRF). At the time the government acknowledged the work of Grenfell United and the UK Cladding Action Group who campaigned, outlining the challenges in getting private building owners to fund the replacement of cladding on their homes.

At the time the scheme was launched 156 private buildings out of a potential 176 private high-rise residential buildings with unsafe ACM cladding had yet to start works on removing and replacing ACM cladding, compared to 23 in the social sector. Private developers and freeholders had been too slow to act and leaseholders have been threatened with significant, often unaffordable, costs resulting in delays. A condition of the funding, required the building owners to take reasonable steps to recover the costs from those responsible for the presence of the unsafe cladding.

The Guidance for Private sector ACM cladding remediation fund: prospectus was published in July 2019 and updated in may 2021. In November, 2024 the National Audit Office (NAO) published its report: 'Dangerous cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio' (see article Cladding remediation programmes, transparency and target date). In this report an assessment was made as to whether the fund met the Value for Money test, and it was indicated that it did not. This was because the fund involves a transfer of resources from the general taxpayer to private individuals and companies, analysis, in line with the Green Book, showed that the public benefits of the scheme did not outweigh the costs of the transfer.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• ACM cladding
• ACM cladding testing by BRE.
• Approved Document B.
• BS 8414 Fire performance of external cladding systems.
• BS 9999: Code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings.
• BS 9991:2015 Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings. Code of practice.
• BS EN 13501-1.
• Building regulations.
• Building safety agreement with developers.
• Celotex RS5000 PIR insulation.
• Cladding for buildings.
• Consultation on banning the use of combustible materials in the external walls of high-rise residential buildings.
• Fire performance of external thermal insulation for walls of multistorey buildings, third edition (BR 135)
• Fire safety design.
• Grenfell Tower articles.
• Grenfell Tower fire.
• Grenfell Tower independent expert advisory panel.
• Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
• HPL cladding.
• Independent review of the building regulations and fire safety.
• Lakanal House fire.
• Material of limited combustibility.
• Non-ACM cladding.
• Protecting tenants and leaseholders from unsafe cladding.
• Rainscreen cladding.
• Reform of building safety standards.
• Ronan Point gas explosion.
• Torre Windsor office building fire.

[edit] External Links

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-sector-acm-cladding-remediation-fund-application-guidance

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dluhc-accounting-officer-assessments/acm-high-rise-residential-building-remediation-programme-accounting-officer-assessment

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-remediation-monthly-data-release-september-2024/building-safety-remediation-monthly-data-release-september-2024

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-sector-acm-cladding-remediation-fund-prospectus