March 25th 2024
Developers yet to begin cladding repairs on unsafe buildings, research shows
The latest statistics from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) show that repairs have not started on 58% of dangerous structures.
As of December 2023, the government data revealed that 3,839 buildings had been identified with unsafe cladding. Of those, 1,608 had started or finished remediation works with 2,231 yet to start work.
In addition, the figures include remediation progress on high-rise (18 metres plus) buildings in height, as well as those identified with dangerous cladding of mid-rise (11-18 metres) height.
Government figures show that as of 31st January 2024, work had begun on a mere 42%, or 624, of the 1,500, 11 metre-plus buildings developers have committed to remediate themselves or pay to fix, while work has been completed on just 307 buildings.
According to the figures, at the end of February, over 4,000 residential buildings 11 metres or taller had been found as having unsafe cladding – up by 120 since January.
However, on a more positive note, the overall number of buildings where remediation work is said to have started or is already completed, has more than doubled since the end of February 2023.
News of such slow progress being made has come as a shock, as the government began cracking down on fixing unsafe buildings following the tragic Grenfell fire incident. In November 2022, the Medium Rise Scheme (MRS) was announced – which is now known as the Cladding Safety Scheme – in a bid to financially support applications for buildings where the applicant is unable to afford to carry out the work themselves or feels that it is not their responsibility to do so.
Only one person or organisation can be legally held accountable for a building’s external repair.
Those who can be responsible include:
- The building’s freeholder or head leaseholder
- A registered provider of social housing
- A management company
- A right to manage company – these organisations are formed by qualifying leaseholders who manage the building or self-contained part of a building in line with the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002
Speaking in April 2022, when over 30 housebuilders signed a cladding pledge, housing secretary Michael Gove said developers have ‘nowhere to hide’ when it came to paying to fix cladding on buildings they built or owned.
Against this backdrop, the industry is also expected to pay around £3bn over the next 10 years through an expansion to the Building Safety Levy, on top of pledging to fix their own buildings.
Image: Ricardo Gomez Angel
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