You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Registrations for government’s £1bn Building Safety Fund top 1,000
There have been more than 1,000 registrations for the government’s new Building Safety Fund, the housing minister has said.
The £1bn fund, which is for the removal of all types of dangerous cladding from high-rise buildings, has now received 1,070 applications.
In a written answer Christopher Pincher said: “Registration for the Building Safety Fund opened 1 June, while guidance for the application process will be published later this month. To date, we have received 1,070 completed registration forms.”
READ MORE
The figure represents an increase in applications as the minister previously reported 458 applications in mid-June, two weeks after it opened.
The fund was announced in the March Budget to enable the removal of non-aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding from buildings taller than 18m.
It builds on the government’s £400m and £200m funds for the removal of ACM cladding on public and private sector buildings announced in 2018 and 2019.
The government is currently aiming for all remedial work to be completed by the end of 2021. It previously committed to a June 2020 deadline.
Ministers have estimated that there are roughly 1,700 high-rise buildings with “high-risk” cladding systems in place, but the fund is expected pay for the removal of less than a third of these.
Civil servants expect the total cost of remediation to be between £3bn and £3.5bn. This means it is expected that the £1bn fund will cover only a third of affected buildings.
