The Cladding Safety Scheme and the Building Safety Fund

The Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) is a fund that addresses fire risks associated with cladding on residential buildings. Its former name was the Medium Rise Scheme (MRS) which was announced in November 2022. The Building Safety Fund (BSF) is operated by the GLA for buildings over 18m in height in the Greater London Area.

The CSS will support applications for buildings where the applicant is unable to afford to carry out the workthemselves or feels that it is not their responsibility to do so. An application for the CSS can be submitted by the person or organisation legally responsible for the building’s external repairs or their representative. It is part of the wider Building Remediation Portfolio whose objectives include ensuring that residents are safe from risks associated with fire safety. Applications for both the CSS and BSF are made through the same online portal - the Building Remediation Hub, which is managed by Homes England.

Once initial application information is submitted, an instruction for a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Wall construction (FRAEW) can be made from a CSS assessor from a panel of Fire Risk Assessors. Only a person or organisation legally responsible for a building’s external repair and maintenance can accept funding from the CSS via a grant funding agreement. This is also known as the ‘Responsible Entity’, who may be: the building’s freeholder or head leaseholder, a registered provider of social housing, a management company (whether this operates for commercial gain or is managed by residents for the benefit of residents) or a Right to Manage (RTM) Company that has primary responsibility for the repair of the property

Buildings over 18 metres with cladding issues are eligible to apply for the Building Safety Fund (BSF), which has allocated over £1.3 billion towards making homes safe since its launch in 2020. Qualifying leaseholders are protected from paying the majority of costs to fix fire safety defects.

An online Leaseholder Protections Checker helps leaseholders understand if they qualify for financial protections under the Building Safety Act. Under the Building Safety Act, building owners and landlords are now responsible for making buildings safe. It is illegal for the costs of cladding repairs and those beyond the leaseholder caps for non-cladding defects to be passed on to qualifying leaseholders.

Any building owner that invoices qualifying leaseholders or continues to seek payment of outstanding bills for work to fix historical building safety defects could now face criminal action, unless they can prove they are legally entitled to recover these costs. Those that the protections apply to need to complete and submit a leaseholder Deed of Certificate to their building owner to confirm whether they have anything to pay. Further guidance to support leaseholders with demonstrating their eligibility has also been published online.

Where there are no clear plans in place to fix buildings over 18 metres with cladding related issues, building owners and landlords can check their eligibility for the Building Safety Fund. For buildings 11-18 metres in height where the original developer or building owner cannot be identified or held responsible, the government is also launching a new scheme to cover the costs of remediating unsafe cladding.

Leaseholders with concerns about how repairs will be made and funded are advised to speak to their building owner, who is legally required to provide regular updates on the progress of fire safety works.