Update: government has not ruled out criteria changes for building safety funds

Budget documents added that this includes “new investment to speed up the remediation of social housing”, and said the government will set out further steps on remediation “later this autumn”.

Inside Housing understands that this funding will be allocated to existing building safety schemes, for which social landlords are eligible only under certain specific criteria.

Housing associations have called for eligibility criteria of schemes such as the Building Safety Fund to be widened to allow more social landlords to access funding.

The government said that it would set out further plans, including detail on how it will support the social housing sector to overcome the barriers to remediation, in due course.

At the Labour Party Conference in September, Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, promised a new remediation plan without revealing any details on what that would look like.

Inside Housing was passed between the Treasury and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) when seeking clarity on how the £1bn in new funding will be delivered and who will be eligible.

MHCLG highlighted the four schemes that support the remediation of social housing. The Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund committed up to £400m to remove and replace unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, but only on buildings over 18 metres in height that are owned by registered providers.

The government said the Building Safety Fund (BSF) has committed £200m to date to support registered providers, but access is only available where meeting the cost of remediation would make the provider financially unviable.

The Cladding Safety Scheme for buildings between 11 and 18 metres is open to providers of social housing on the same basis as the BSF.

While more than 50 large and medium-sized developers signed up to the government’s building safety pledge, smaller developers did not.

A total of 55 developers signed a developer remediation contract with the government, committing to remediate more than 1,500 buildings of 11 metres or taller, at a cost to those developers of around £3.2bn.

Sources said the government was working closely with partners across the sector to identify barriers to remediation and ways to overcome them, including how social housing providers access funding.

Inside Housing reported this week how one London landlord, Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA), had to sell off a number of social homes in the prime minister’s constituency to cover remediation costs, because it could not access the BSF.

The developer of ISHA’s block went into liquidation in 2018 and could not be pursued for remediation costs.

Ruth Davison, chief executive of ISHA, said: “The rules around access to building safety funds need to be changed as a matter of urgency. It is appalling that social housing residents with a social landlord were barred from accessing funds to make their homes safe to begin with.

“It doesn’t need a consultation or protracted conversation – just a level playing field now. We’re diverting funds from building homes to deal with this – and, worse, selling homes to fund the work.

“If this government cares about the delivery of social homes and equity for social renters, it will act immediately to reverse the decisions of the last administration.”

Update: at 12:00, 8 November

This article was updated because some of the previous background information provided by government was incorrect. The eligibility for the scheme is unchanged and the criteria also remain unchanged, but the government has updated to say it has not ruled out changing the criteria in future.