Nearly 2,800 buildings register for government’s £1bn Building Safety Fund

Registration for the fund for private blocks opened at the start of June and closed at the end of July. The fund opened in July for social housing providers whose costs would otherwise be passed on to leaseholders.

According to the figures, 1,709 of the registrations made do not include the basic information needed to assess whether they are eligible, while 628 buildings have provided some but not all of the information required.

As part of the application process, buildings must submit information and supporting evidence to show the height of their building and the materials used. This would need to be supported by evidence such as as-built drawings, an operation and maintenance manual or a report by a suitably qualified construction professional.

MHCLG reported that so far only 447 had provided this information correctly so eligibility could be checked, with 65 of those already proceeding with a formal application for funding and 73 being found ineligible and withdrawing their bid.

Once eligibility has been confirmed and the formal application stage begins, legal and project-related due diligence will be carried out by Homes England or the Greater London Authority to ensure that the government is paying the right entities for the work.

Tower Hamlets was the local authority with the most applications, with 282 blocks across the east London borough registering. Manchester was second with 136 applications and Newham was third with 130.

Earlier this week Inside Housing joined with Grenfell survivors, residents of blocks with dangerous cladding and the Sunday Times to relaunch the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign, which calls on the government to take urgent national action to fix the spiralling crisis.

The campaign has called on the government to take 10 steps to help fix the crisis, which includes forward funding necessary remediation work for all buildings regardless of height and reclaiming the cost from those responsible through a new levy. This is modelled on a successful approach used in Victoria, Australia, which faces similar cladding issues.

The campaign also calls for the government to cover the costs of fire safety defects in buildings, not just cladding, as well as the costs for interim safety measures such as waking watches or the installation of fire alarms. Social housing providers must also have access to the fund, the campaign demands.

An MHCLG spokesperson said: “Our priority is making homes safer, faster, which is why we’re providing £1 billion to speed up the removal of unsafe non-ACM cladding through our Building Safety Fund.

“We are already working to progress eligible applicants to the Fund to the next stage – so we can begin the remediation process as quickly as possible.

“It’s disappointing so many building owners – who are responsible for making sure their buildings are safe – have been unable to provide the basic information we need to progress and we urge them to do so as quickly as possible.”