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Government receives 458 registrations for £1bn Building Safety Fund
The government has received 458 registrations for the new £1bn Building Safety Fund in the two weeks it has been open.
Speaking to the House of Commons yesterday, housing minister Christopher Pincher said: “Registrations for the new Building Safety Fund, which opened on 1 June, have now reached 458.”
The £1bn fund was announced in the March Budget to enable the removal of non-aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding from buildings above 18m. The fund will run until the end of July.
The government estimates that there are there are still around 1,700 buildings with combustible non-ACM cladding.
Last week, a report from the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee said the fund was only likely to cover the cost of remediation on 600 blocks and did not tackle the issue of fire safety in lower-rise residential accommodation.
The committee urged the government to set deadlines for buildings where remediation work is slow. It said the deadline for the removal of ACM from all buildings should be set at June 2021 and all non-ACM buildings should have their cladding removed by June 2022.
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Labour’s shadow housing and planning minister Mike Amesbury highlighted the 245 buildings that still have ACM cladding on and said: “If the remedial work continues at the same snail’s pace, it will take up to 39 years for the work to be completed.”
Mr Pincher said: “We believe that £1bn now, to get on with the job, will go a great deal along the way to make sure that buildings are made safe for their residents.”
The minister highlighted £600m already made available for ACM-clad buildings and said the draft Building Safety Bill will be published “soon”.
Inside Housing revealed earlier this month that in Greater Manchester alone there 121 buildings that have ACM cladding systems – a fifth of the region’s tall buildings.
Leaseholders in buildings with dangerous cladding on have seen insurance premium hikes and have been unable to sell their homes due to their properties being valued at £0.
A recent survey by the UK Cladding Action Group exposed the shocking impact the cladding crisis is having on residents trapped in unsafe buildings.
