Safety inspections for mid-rise buildings could take 24 years, fire chiefs warn
Inspecting mid-rise buildings for safety issues could take up to 24 years and cost £609m, fire chiefs have warned.
Fire and rescue services “lack sufficient capacity” and the workforce needed to identify and inspect all mid-rise housing blocks, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said in an industry white paper published on 24 February.
Mid-rise buildings are defined as being between 11 and 18 metres tall. The number of mid-rise residential buildings is not known, however estimates range from 79,000 to 150,000.
Depending on the number of mid-rise buildings, the NFCC said, an inspection programme could span between 12 and 24 years and cost £284m to £609m.
Even though the number of competent inspecting officers has risen nearly 30% since 2022, the figures “still demonstrate the significant challenge such a task would pose”.
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Training fire engineers takes three to five years, with many leaving the public sector for better-paid private sector roles and the limited pool of professionals causing wage inflation.
Currently, there is no requirement for building owners to register mid-rise buildings, but the government announced plans to bring in mandatory registration in December.
The NFCC report warned that until such a register is in place, “there is no data to show the definitive number of 11m+ buildings across the country or those with dangerous cladding”.
The fire chiefs called on the government to establish a cross-departmental construction skills strategy to address shortages in fire engineers and risk assessors.
It also urged ministers to deliver on recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase two report around occupational regulation and competency.
Mark Hardingham, chair of the NFCC, said: “We need to put the proper processes in place now to fully identify and remove the barriers to remediation, to manage risk and ensure people are protected.
“This means a centrally co-ordinated programme, a serious plan to tackle workforce shortages, and joined-up strategic direction to manage other crucial priorities.
“Unless we get these foundations right, we risk repeating the mistakes of the past and leaving thousands of people living in unsafe buildings for many years to come.”
The fire chiefs’ intervention comes after a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) in November, which said it could take until 2037 for all homes over 11 metres with dangerous cladding to be fixed, and cost £16.6bn.
The NAO also highlighted that up to 60% of the 9,000 to 12,000 buildings over 11 metres that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) estimates will need to be remediated are still to be identified. This means the government is only 12-16% of the way to remediating all residential buildings.
The government published its own policy paper on accelerating remediation in December 2024. It committed to ensuring all buildings above 18 metres tall within a government-funded initiative are remediated by the end of 2029. Also, all buildings over 11 metres with known safety defects will have a definitive timeline for remediation.
MHCLG will announce a long-term strategy for the remediation of high and medium-rise social housing buildings in spring this year.
There are 5,011 buildings in the government’s public remediation portfolio. MHCLG has said that remediation work is yet to start on more than half of these, with around one-third having completed remediation.
The Building Safety Regulator declined to comment on the NFCC report. MHCLG has also been approached for a response.
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