Government figures published in January 2024 reveal that 58% of buildings identified with unsafe cladding have yet to start remediation works.
In its monthly release of data, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) revealed that, as of December 2023, a total of 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.
The DLUHC said: “Overall, 1,608 buildings (42%) have either started or completed remediation works. Of these, 797 buildings (21%) have completed remediation works.
The figures include remediation progress on high-rise (18m+) buildings in height as well as those identified with dangerous cladding of mid-rise (11-18m) height.
The figures also state the number of buildings that have started or completed works has doubled since December 2022.
The Building Safety Remediation data release includes data on buildings in various DLUHC funding streams: the Building Safety Fund, Cladding Safety Scheme; developer remediation contract and reported by registered providers of social housing; as well as high-rise buildings with ACM cladding systems.
Cladding Safety Scheme
Previous versions of the data release have only included data on high-rise buildings with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet building regulations, with data on buildings in the Building Safety Fund published separately.
Throughout 2023, DLUHC started monitoring the remediation progress of buildings in the Cladding Safety Scheme, developer remediation contract and reported by registered providers of social housing.
This change in scope has since the end of December 2022 largely driven the reporting of an additional 2,237 buildings with unsafe cladding.
Of the 1,345 buildings identified as having life-critical fire safety risks that will be remediated by developers:
- 262 (19%) are reported to have completed remediation;
- 473 (35%) are reported to have started or completed remediation; and
- 506 (38%) are reported to have not started remediation but have plans in place.
It is currently estimated it will cost around £2.7bn to complete the remediation works.
There are an estimated 91,000 dwellings in buildings with defects that developers are committed to remediate. Of these, there are an estimated 32,000 dwellings in buildings that are reported as having either started or completed remediation works.
Based on the start and completion dates that have been reported by developers, 433 buildings are expected to start works and 164 buildings are expected to complete their remediation between 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024.
