Government promises to replace all unsafe cladding by 2029
December 4, 2024
Some positive action to begin the week with as the Labour government has promised to fix all Grenfell-style cladding – on buildings on Government-funded schemes – within five years.
The Remediation Acceleration Plan will mandate that all buildings over 18 metres tall in Government schemes will have dangerous cladding removed before the end of 2029. The Government will be working closely with developers to accelerate remediation works and achieve its target.
Every building above 11 metres in height will either have a date for completion, will have been remediated, or if either of the two criteria have not been met, then the landlord responsible will be liable for penalties by the same date.
While the Government have said this is decisive action, some campaigners have labelled the proposals as disappointing and complicating in terms of added layers of bureaucracy.
Three key objectives of the Remediation Acceleration Plan
According to the Ministry of Housing, 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.
Pace of remediation has been too slow
Many in the property industry and health and safety sector will agree that remediation of unsafe cladding has been far too slow. The catalyst for the legislative changes was the Grenfell Tower tragedy of 2017, in which 72 people lost their lives and countless others were permanently affected because of the combustible cladding the tower was wrapped in.
End Our Cladding Scandal, a group representing leaseholders impacted by unsafe buildings, said “the Building Safety Fund first opened for registrations in June 2020, so a target date of nine years from then is underwhelming.”
They went on to say, “There is still far too much uncertainty. Severe penalties will be meaningless without leaseholders and residents knowing for sure when homes will be made fully safe. This ‘plan’ will do little to change that.”
How many people are affected by unsafe cladding in the UK?
Surprisingly, there is not an available, accurate figure for this. The government does not supply regular statistics on other types of building other than those buildings that are over 18 metres in height.
In 2022, according to the Association of Residential Managing Agents (now The Property Institute), approximately half a million people were living in a building with some form of unsafe cladding.
How many buildings still require remediation?
To date, 95% of buildings with the same type of cladding used on the Grenfell Tower have been remediated, but this figure does not cover all unsafe buildings.
Only 30% of those buildings identified in England as having unsafe cladding have been remediated so far, with a lot more buildings to potentially add to the list.
Building safety minister, Alex Norris said, “Our remediation acceleration plan will fix buildings faster, identify all buildings with unsafe cladding and support vulnerable residents.”
Let’s hope the plan hits its targets and more.
Read more about the British Safety Fund: Information for leaseholders and freeholders.
Sources:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accelerating-remediation-a-plan-for-increasing-the-pace-of-remediation-of-buildings-with-unsafe-cladding-in-england/remediation-acceleration-plan
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/labour-pledges-to-fix-all-grenfell-style-cladding-on-government-funded-buildings/
https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/building-owners-given-five-more-years-to-fix-cladding
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/unsafe-cladding-to-be-fixed-by-2029-12-years-after-grenfell-tragedy/ar-AA1v6me4?ocid=BingNewsVerp
https://mashroom.com/blog/the-cladding-crisis-what-you-need-to-know-21674
*Cladding remediation image used for visual representation only.
