Progress in remediating dangerous cladding

Summary

• Resident safety is housing associations’ top priority. We are committed to conducting remedial works on all buildings that need them.
• The demand for resources and capacity to inspect and remediate buildings with safety concerns is extremely high and has been limited further due to issues experts and specialists have experienced in securing professional indemnity insurance. Remedial works are complex and due to their complexity and capacity challenges, could take many years to complete. The deadlines the government has set for remedial works to be completed on high-rise buildings will be challenging to meet in practice.
• Housing associations are unlikely to qualify for funding through the Building Safety Fund. This means that our members will have to meet the costs of remedial works themselves, with a likely detrimental impact on our ability to build much-needed affordable homes.
• We are concerned that the Building Safety Fund is being allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, which could mean that buildings presenting a greater risk could lose out on funding to lower risk buildings.
• We are calling for government to speed up remedial works by providing upfront funding then recouping costs later once liabilities are established and coordinating limited resources to ensure they are directed first at buildings who need them most.