The government is promising ‘severe penalties’ for owners of builders more than 11-metres high who fail to get unsafe cladding fixed by the end of 2029.
It also says that by that same date, five years from now, all 18-metre+ (high-rise) buildings with unsafe cladding will have been remediated thanks to a government-funded scheme.
The new remediation acceleration plan, published today, comes seven and a half years after the Grenfell Tower fire that claimed 72 lives and exposed a national scandal around the mis-selling, misspecification and misapplication of cladding systems.
To date, 95% of buildings with the same type of cladding used on Grenfell have been remediated. However, only 30% of identified buildings in England have been remediated, with potentially thousands more buildings yet to be identified.
At least 29 developers, covering more than 95% of the buildings that developers are remediating themselves, have committed to more than doubling the rate at which they have been assessing and starting to fix unsafe buildings, meaning work on all their buildings should start by summer 2027.
The Ministry of Housing says that its remediation acceleration plan is focused on three key objectives:
- Fix buildings faster, with deadlines and penalties for non-compliance
- Identify all buildings with unsafe cladding and create a building register
- Protect residents from the cost of remediation.
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who is secretary of state at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, said: ”More than seven years on from the Grenfell tragedy, thousands of people have been left living in homes across this country with dangerous cladding.
“The pace of remediation has been far too slow for far too long. We are taking decisive action to right this wrong and make homes safe.
“Our remediation acceleration plan will ensure those responsible for making buildings safe deliver the change residents need and deserve.”
Building safety minister Alex Norris added: “By setting a clear timeline and firm deadlines, today’s announcement is a major step towards ensuring every building is made safe. Our remediation acceleration plan will fix buildings faster, identify all buildings with unsafe cladding and support vulnerable residents.
“This underscores our unwavering commitment to safeguarding residents and holding those responsible to account. We will not hesitate to actively pursue the owners of buildings who refuse to act.”
Andrew Parker, head of building safety at law firm Forsters commented: “Ensuring leaseholders have clarity and certainty about the safety of their buildings and the timings of remediation work is welcome but the key challenge, which the government does acknowledge, is the availability of suitably skilled professionals and contractors qualified to design and implement the required remediation works. Regulation will sharpen people’s minds, but the pace can only improve when all parts of the construction industry and regulatory bodies are effectively resourced, and this will take time.”
Natalie Chambers, director of the Residential Freehold Association, said: “The shortage of specialists available to remediate buildings will not be resolved by imposing a deadline nor will it address the various regulatory inconsistencies, funding gaps and delays caused by the Building Safety Regulator.”
