In March’s budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the new funding ‘to help strip combustible cladding from homes’ in both social housing and privately owned blocks going above the original £600m funding for both social housing and privately owned blocks to help with removing combustible cladding from blocks over 18m tall.
The previous funding was for buildings with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, but Mr Sunak said that this would ‘go beyond dealing with ACM to make sure that all unsafe combustible cladding will be removed’. The funding would ensure such cladding would be removed ‘from every private and social residential building above 18m high’, and the government would continue to try and building owners and developers pay ‘their fair share’.
In a new announcement, the government said that the fund ‘will meet the cost for unsafe non-ACM cladding on residential buildings’, 18m and over that ‘do not comply with building regulations’, and urged building owners to ‘act and put the safety of residents first’, with its total funding for cladding remediation now £1.6bn.
The government pointed out that while the fund is ‘predominantly targeted’ at supporting private sector leaseholders ‘facing significant bills’ it was ‘clear that for leaseholders living in buildings owned by providers in the social sector, it will provide funding to meet the provider’s costs which would otherwise have been borne by leaseholders’. Landlords are expected to cover such costs ‘without increasing rent for their tenants’.
Reiterating its message to building owners, the government added that it expects owners ‘already remediating their buildings’ to ‘continue to do so’, and ‘explore every opportunity to fund this work before seeking funding from government or passing on costs to their leaseholders’. The fund’s application process is designed to enable projects ‘to proceed at pace’, with building owners, freeholders and others responsible for buildings to register from Monday.
Applications ‘can be progressed alongside the development of the remediation project’, and focusing on non ACM remediation for the private sector, the government said that the fund would ‘meet the capital costs of removing and replacing’ cladding, and be provided for ‘mixed use residential and commercial developments in both sectors’. Buildings under 18m will not be included, nor will hotels, hospitals and building with no residential leaseholders.
The government also noted that where work had begun on buildings with non ACM systems, or #where work had been previously committed to’ prior to the budget announcement, ‘these works will not [be] eligible for the fund’. Registration will open on 1 June and close on 31 July, with guidance on full applications to be issued after.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick stated: ‘Today I am launching our £1 billion fund to remove unsafe non-ACM cladding from buildings. This is work that must take place as an absolute priority to keep residents safe and brings total funding for remediation up to £1.6 billion. I will not accept any excuses from building owners who have yet to take action and those responsible should register for the fund so that they can start the remediation process immediately.
‘I have also reached an agreement with local leaders so that this important work can continue safely during the pandemic.’
Building Safety Minister Lord Greenhalgh said: ‘Now that this additional £1 billion funding is in place, building owners must crack on with removing flammable cladding on all high-rise residential buildings that are over 18 metres. The government will work with the Mayor of London and our Metro Mayors as well as local councils to ensure that these vital building safety works are finally carried out, so that people are safe in their homes.
‘Our Fire Safety Bill, which was introduced to Parliament last month, will empower fire and rescue services to take enforcement action and hold building owners to account if they do not comply with law.’
Inside Housing added further detail on the announcement, including that the mention of social housing ‘comes after a number of warnings from social housing sector figures that costs of remediation could be pushed onto leaseholders and shared owners in the future’. It also noted that there are ‘still concerns’ that the fund ‘will cover the cost of cladding removal from only a fraction of the blocks with dangerous non-ACM cladding’.