Policy paper

Remediation Acceleration Plan update, July 2025

Published 17 July 2025

Applies to England

Introduction

The Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP), published on 2 December 2024, set out the government’s plans to accelerate the remediation of residential buildings with unsafe cladding in England and improve resident experience. As part of that plan, the government committed to publishing an update to report on progress and outline additional measures to support the delivery of its key objectives:

• Objective 1: fix buildings faster – so that those buildings already known to us can be made safe at pace;
• Objective 2: identify all 11m+ residential buildings with unsafe cladding – so that every building with unsafe cladding is found and fixed; and
• Objective 3: support residents – so that leaseholders and residents of buildings with unsafe cladding can get the support they deserve throughout the remediation process.

This update outlines the significant progress already made against these objectives and sets out a range of additional measures to fix buildings faster, identify those 11m+ buildings still at risk and ensure that residents are supported in the process. These measures will help to overcome the barriers to remediation so that residents feel safe and are safe in their homes.

This work supports our wider ambitions for a safe and sustainable built environment that meets resident needs and contributes to the government’s commitment to deliver 1.5 million quality homes over this Parliament, ensuring people have access to the high-quality housing they need. The spending review in June set the foundation for the largest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and will support councils and housing associations to build capacity towards that commitment. But we must not lose sight of the challenges in our existing housing stock. This update ensures those issues remain a priority.

To fix buildings faster, this update outlines plans to:

• Give social landlords equal access to government remediation funding as private landlords, supported by a new joint plan between government, social landlords and regulators to speed up remediation, cutting years off the time to make social tenants safe and improving resident experience before, during and after remedial works.
• Bring forward a Remediation Bill to create a hard ‘endpoint’ for remediation. A Legal Duty to Remediate will compel landlords to remediate their buildings within fixed timescales or face criminal prosecution. Avoidance is not an option. Where landlords fail, new powers - including a Remediation Backstop - will ensure the work gets done. The Bill will be brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.
• Tighten fire assessment standards to minimise delays to remediation start dates and provide certainty on the scope of works.
• Support the delivery of Local Remediation Acceleration Plans (LRAPs) to enhance collaborative working and expertise at regional levels, further to the over £5 million in funding already provided to metro mayors.
• Establish a National Remediation System (NRS) to serve as the single source of data for all relevant buildings over 11 metres to enhance information sharing across partner organisations.

To find 11m+ residential buildings in need of cladding remediation, we have:

• Reviewed over 212,000 Ordnance Survey records and, as part of a separate exercise, published updated prevalence information based on the latest available data which reduces the estimated number of buildings requiring remediation that have not yet been brought into a remediation programme from 4,000 – 7,000 to 500 – 3,400 with 60% - 91% having already been identified.
• Advanced work to review further Ordnance Survey records and remain on track to identify the vast majority of relevant 11m+ buildings with potentially unsafe cladding by the end of the year.
• Identified buildings where further investigation is required and began engagement with responsible parties to review their fire risk assessments and either provide support to help them enter a programme or rule them out.

To support residents, this update outlines plans to:

• Provide funding, on a strictly exceptional basis, to multi-occupied residential buildings under 11 metres where it is needed to address life-critical fire safety risks from cladding and there are no alternatives to fund the works.
• Bring forward legislation to ensure that regulators can enforce the remediation or mitigation of critical issues following a decant of a residential building of 11m+. This will ensure that decants are either averted, or residents can return to their homes as quickly as possible.
• Implement a long-term, sustainable approach to the Waking Watch Replacement Fund.
• Ensure that, even after remediation, social landlords who have signed the Joint Plan continue to allow shared owners to sublet their properties up to market rent level where demonstrable efforts are being made to sell the property.

These further initiatives, in addition to those already set out in the RAP published in December, will address barriers to remediating unsafe cladding while ensuring that residents are supported.

Progress to date on building remediation

In the Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP), we highlighted that in the years following the Grenfell tragedy, remediation work had been completed on only 1,436 of the 4,834 unsafe buildings identified at that time.

The RAP announced new measures to overcome barriers to progress and, for the first time, set timescales to provide greater certainty to residents on when they might expect their buildings to be remediated and to provide clarity to the sector on the Government’s expectations. It will take time to feel the full benefits of new measures to increase pace, but we are making early progress.

By the end of 2029, every 18m+ residential building in a government funded scheme will be remediated. We have made progress on fixing buildings and pulling buildings through approval processes so they can work at pace.

As at the end of June 2025, 975 of these buildings had started or completed remediation – an increase of 35 since the end of October 2024. A further 77 buildings had submitted applications to start work on their remediation to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). Since the end of October, £455 million more in government funding for 18m+ buildings had been approved – more than double that approved in the equivalent period prior to publication of the RAP and 59 buildings have had full funding applications approved allowing them to prepare to begin works.

By the end of 2029, every 11m+ building with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a date for completion, or its landlords will be liable for penalties. As of the end of June 2025, remediation has started or been completed on 2,490 of the 11m+ buildings identified as requiring remediation. This is an increase of 71 since the end of October 2024. There have been 331 completions of remediation works since we published the RAP in December, which means 24,000 more residents are now living in safe homes.

The RAP also set out plans to accelerate work to identify all buildings over 11 metres that may require cladding remediation. We have today published revised estimates of the number of 11m+ buildings that will require remediation due to unsafe cladding. We estimate that 60% to 91% of buildings requiring remediation are having remediation monitored by MHCLG. We estimate that there are between 500 to 3,400 buildings with unsafe cladding left to bring into a remediation programme - a significant reduction from previous estimates of 4,000 to 7,000 buildings.

Furthermore, as part of the work to establish the single national remediation system and single source of reference, Homes England has undertaken a review of buildings across England to locate as many buildings of interest (potentially requiring remediation) as possible. We have promoted the ‘tell us’ tool through local authorities to support residents and leaseholders to inform Homes England about their buildings.

While early progress has been made, we are working to make this move much faster. The rest of this update reports on progress made to implement measures outlined in the RAP and additional interventions to support acceleration.

Objective 1: fix buildings faster

In the RAP, we identified barriers to making buildings safe quickly. Barriers include delays caused by landlords, limited regulatory capacity, inconsistent capabilities across social housing providers, disputes between developers and other parties, and limited supply of skilled professionals. Below, we outline progress made against measures set out in the RAP, along with new actions to accelerate remediation.

Action with landlords to get their buildings fixed

Landlords are responsible for ensuring that their buildings are safe. Where cladding is found to pose a life-critical fire safety risk, those responsible for the building must act to mitigate the risk. Some landlords are failing to act, and too many buildings remain unsafe.

The government has committed to legislating for new legal duties on those responsible for fixing buildings with unsafe cladding.

Last autumn, the Deputy Prime Minister wrote to several organisations responsible for a disproportionately high number of buildings with unsafe cladding. The Deputy Prime Minister has since met several of those organisations, who have made firm commitments to expedite works. This has unblocked progress on buildings that were stuck due to disputes between developers and freeholders, and we expect all parties to make faster progress over the coming months. If they fail to act, we will not hesitate to take further action.

New powers to accelerate work to fix buildings and force landlords to act

We intend to create a stronger regime to ensure life critical external wall defects are remediated, incorporating clear deadlines in law and new powers for regulators to cut through blockers to progress. Not remediating life critical external wall defects is not an option.

Too often, critical remediation work is being delayed by disputes over access to the building, scope of works, or contractual arrangements. While some negotiation is needed, deliberate or unreasonable obstruction is unacceptable when it puts lives at risk. Under the Legal Duty to Remediate, we intend to make it an offence for any person to obstruct another from assessing or remediating an unsafe building over 11m in height, without a reasonable excuse. This will apply to any party whose actions unreasonably hinder progress. Enforcing authorities will be empowered to issue financial penalties to deter and address such behaviour. Everyone has a role to play in ensuring that unsafe buildings are fixed without delay, and obstructive conduct will not be tolerated. To provide certainty for residents and as part of the legal duty to remediate, we plan to put into law timescales for completing remediation - consistent with the RAP.

By the end of 2029, any landlord who has failed to remediate a building over 18 metres - without reasonable excuse - will face criminal prosecution, with unlimited fines and/or imprisonment.

For buildings between 11 and 18 metres, those that have not been remediated or scheduled for completion by the end of 2029 will be escalated to our regulatory partners for investigation and enforcement. Non-compliance will attract stringent penalties. 2031 will mark the natural end date for completion of works on these buildings. Failure to meet this deadline without a reasonable excuse will constitute a criminal offence, punishable by unlimited fines and/or imprisonment.

We are drawing a line. Avoidance is not an option: landlords must act now or face increasingly stringent penalties.

If a landlord fails to comply with the Duty to Remediate, they will face strong sanctions. In addition, we will give local authorities and Homes England new Remediation Backstop powers: where the timeline for completing cladding remediation has passed or if relevant enforcement options have been exhausted, local authorities and Homes England will be able to apply to the First Tier Tribunal for permission to undertake remedial works themselves directly. Once remedial works have been completed, the landlord will be liable for any costs that would not normally have been covered by government. If those costs are not met, landlords could have their building subject to an enforced sale to fund repayment.

Supporting regulators to hold landlords to account

Enforcement, underpinned by accurate information, is key for driving action where landlords aren’t meeting obligations. In the RAP, we announced new funding and additional support to enable local authorities to increase enforcement activity by ensuring appropriate capacity. We also announced our intention to legislate to provide the regulators with powers to compel entities to disclose information on their beneficial ownership chains. This remains part of our legislative programme.

As a result of our interventions to date, we’ve seen significant results from local authorities; by the end of June 2025 inspections had risen by 140%, with a 124% increase in formal notices, compared to the period prior to the department’s funding. Enforcement action has been, or is being, taken under the Housing Act against 566 buildings over 11m with suspected unsafe cladding. Of these, 43% have had notices served against them and 165 buildings had inspections with Joint Inspection Team support.

To help local and national regulators hold responsible parties to account, we will establish a new dedicated Remediation Enforcement Unit within the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). The unit will take forward the enforcement of 18m+ buildings with unsafe cladding that are not progressing to RAP timescales. This will enable the BSR to play a more prominent role in enforcing the rules, including the Duty to Remediate.

In December we announced that MHCLG would provide additional funding to our Recovery Strategy Unit to enable it to target a greater range of actors and drive forward the remediation of unsafe buildings and the recovery of funds from those responsible. This fund has been further extended, for this financial year, which will continue to increase capacity of the RSU to act.

Strengthening enforcement with enhanced tools

With new requirements to remediate, we will also need the tools to hold landlords to account. If granted by the Tribunal, Remediation Contribution Orders (RCOs) can make sure that funding to fix building safety defects is secured and/or costs already incurred in fixing relevant defects can be recovered. In March, we published guidance on the use of RCOs to provide a framework for any interested person considering applying to the Tribunal, including local authorities and fire and rescue authorities.

The Building Safety Act sets out measures designed to ensure that those responsible for relevant defects in relevant buildings fix them. Where remediation is needed and not progressing due to the landlord’s inaction, Remediation Orders (ROs) can be granted by the First-tier Tribunal to compel a landlord to fix the building. We are going further to better ensure that those who are subject to an RO are held to account; we intend to legislate to strengthen sanctions and bolster enforcement.

Ensuring coordination between regulators via local acceleration plans

In the RAP, we announced our intention to empower metro mayors to work in partnership with local authorities and regulators to drive remediation through Local Remediation Acceleration Plans (LRAPs); which seek to bring together expertise, local knowledge and resources to create single area strategies. Following these commitments, 5 Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs) are publishing their plans in July or August, and all others have shared their pathway to publication.

These plans harness the power of collaborative working and expertise at regional levels to speed up remediation. This includes through better coordination of intervention activities; clearer communication and data sharing with residents and partners; faster identification of remaining missing buildings; setting firmer expectations for progress and additional support for enforcement action, all in one national system.

The plans, showcasing good practice, all incorporate the following key principles to ensure strong foundations are in place for successful implementation:

• Collaboration/convening: The LRAPs highlight commitment to use convening powers to build strong local partnerships, ensuring clear roles and oversight to accelerate remediation.
• Supporting the Remediation Enforcement Guidance (REG): Many of the plans indicate an intention to establish or update cross-regulator agreements, designating a lead regulator to oversee remediation. This is crucial for accountability, streamlining decision-making, and enforcement while supporting REG implementation.
• Prioritising: A risk-based approach to prioritise remediation and enforcement action while considering the RAP metrics.

Several plans go beyond the key principles initially outlined by the Department, adopting innovative ideas and actions including:

• Creating dedicated websites and social media presences to improve resident knowledge, engagement, and ability to share experiences of remediation.
• Exploring how fast-track apprenticeships and professional training can help capacity issues.
• A newly formed co-chaired Joint Remediation Partnership Board led by Minister Alex Norris and Deputy London Mayor Tom Copley to drive progress on the vital work to end London’s building cladding crisis. The board will be attended by the government, London’s City Hall, local and national regulatory bodies and other critical delivery partners of remediation supporting the plans due to be outlined in the London LRAP.

Alongside those plans, we have allocated over £5 million to MSAs in new burdens funding to facilitate additional activities and resources to drive the identification and remediation of buildings with unsafe cladding. This includes funding for Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) to support the development and implementation of local plans. We have also allocated over £8 million of funding to LAs to support remediation enforcement activity. The Minister for Building Safety, Fire and Local Growth will continue to meet mayors quarterly to drive progress and support delivery.

Supporting social landlords to get buildings fixed

Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, we have identified around 2,800 social housing residential buildings with unsafe cladding in England. This means that around one in every six such 11m+ residential buildings in England has been found to have unsafe cladding.

As of June 2025, remedial works had started or completed on only 44% of those buildings, leaving over 1,500 buildings with works yet to begin. This is too slow. On top of this, residents in some social buildings experience unnecessary stress and disruption before, during and after remedial works.

On 2 July, the government set out a plan to deliver around 300,000 social and affordable homes over the next ten years through a new £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme, with at least 60% for social rent. The first responsibility for all social landlords remains to make sure that their existing stock is safe. In the RAP, we recognised that social landlords face particular challenges to remediating those buildings quickly, while also working to improve wider housing quality and to increase the number of affordable homes.

Today, we have published a joint plan with social landlords and regulators that will accelerate remediation of social housing in England, and in doing so free the sector to build more of the affordable homes that the country needs. Our joint plan will do this by helping the sector to overcome longstanding barriers to remediation, including access to capital funding, a slow process for recovering costs from those who built or refurbished unsafe buildings, and constrained access to supply chain and project management capabilities.

Under this joint plan, government and social landlords are committing to the target dates for remediation set out in the wider Remediation Acceleration Plan:

• By the end of 2029, every 18m+ residential building in a government funded scheme will be remediated.
• By the end of 2029, every 11m+ building with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a date for completion, or its landlords will be liable for penalties.

At the heart of the joint plan is a commitment by the government to over £1 billion of new investment to give social landlords equal access to government remediation schemes for the first time. Our policy ends the two-tier approach we inherited from the previous government. It addresses the single biggest barrier to remediation and paves a clear path for social landlords to make their buildings safe. There is no time to waste, and we will implement our equal access policy with immediate effect. We have today changed the rules of the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) so that:

• Social homes in 11m+ residential buildings will be eligible for funding support regardless of whether the resident is a social tenant or a leaseholder.
• Social buildings will be eligible for cladding remediation funding without having to demonstrate that the social landlord would otherwise be in financial distress due to the cost of carrying out works.
• A social landlord remediating their 11m+ building through a government remediation scheme will be permitted to fix their building and seek to recover costs from third parties in parallel, rather than in series. This means that works to make those homes safe can start before lengthy cost-recovery efforts are exhausted.
• There will be an uplift for some social housing buildings that are already in a government remediation scheme, but the schemes will not retrospectively fund works that have already been completed or remedial projects that had a works contract signed on or before 11 June 2025.

Our early estimate is that around 1,200 social housing buildings with unsafe cladding that are not in a government fund and have not started remedial works could now be eligible for government remediation funding. Additionally, some of the 229 social buildings that are already in a government remediation scheme and did not start remediation work by end June 2025 will be eligible for top-up funding. There is no time to waste. We have identified a pipeline of buildings that will likely be eligible for the new funding, and work has begun to contact those who are responsible for those buildings to encourage them to apply.

We know that some social landlords also face challenges in securing funding and managing multiple remediation projects simultaneously. We will address this by offering comprehensive, wraparound support to every social landlord that applies to a government remediation scheme, including expert pre-tender guidance and technical assistance. This will support social landlords to carry out remedial works quickly and cost-effectively.

The joint plan we published today includes 22 actions for social landlords, government and regulators to accelerate remediation and improve resident experience before, during and after remedial works. This includes social landlords signing up to the Code of Practice for Remediation of Buildings and giving shared owners a fairer deal.

The joint plan was developed in partnership with the sector and demonstrates that the sector is ready to rise to the challenge. The Building Safety Minister wrote to every social landlord that has one or more unsafe buildings and invited them to sign up to the joint plan. As at 16 July 2025, at least 110 social landlords have already signed up to the joint plan. Those signatories collectively account for over 75% of the social buildings known to require remediation. The list of social landlords who have signed up to the plan is published online and will be updated as more social landlords sign up.

Social tenants expect and deserve to feel safe in their homes. Giving social landlords equal access to government remediation funding backed by wraparound support for all social landlords has created a clear path to remediate every social housing building over 11m in England without delay. These measures and the £39 billion package announced for the new Affordable Homes Programme will mean that remedial works can be completed much sooner, whilst giving social landlords funding certainty that will enable them to unlock resources and invest more confidently in delivering the new affordable homes that the country needs.

We expect every social landlord to remediate their buildings to the timescales set out in the RAP. The introduction of a new statutory Duty to Remediate means that landlords who fail to act reasonably will face serious penalties. We will make sure that no building is left behind by putting in place a new National Remediation System (run by Homes England) to track progress, including on social housing buildings. The system will enable residents, regulators, mayors and government to monitor progress and act if progress stalls.

Making sure that developers fix buildings they developed or refurbished

It is right that the industry which caused and profited from unsafe homes should contribute its fair share towards making those homes safe.

To this end, government has signed Developer Remediation Contracts with 53 developers. As at 30 June 2025, we had identified 2,026 buildings as having life-critical fire safety defects that developers are obligated to remediate or pay to remediate under those contracts, at an estimated cost to those developers of £4.1 billion. Any developer that fails to meet the obligations in their contract could face significant commercial consequences.

RAP stated that some developer-led remediation was progressing too slowly. We published a joint plan in which government and developers committed to actions to accelerate developer-led remediation and improve resident experience. 39 developers (accounting for over 95% of the unsafe buildings that require developer-led remediation under the Contracts) signed up to the joint plan.

The joint plan included 35 actions for developers and government, and commitments by developers to meet ambitious stretch targets to roughly double the pace of progress so that they:

• Finish assessing 100% of their buildings by the end of July 2025.
• Start or complete remedial works on 80% of their buildings by the end of July 2026.
• Start or complete remedial works on 100% of their buildings by the end of July 2027.
• Resolve all current cost-recovery negotiations with social landlords by the end of July 2025.

Since we published the joint plan, developers have accelerated work to assess and remediate the buildings for which they are responsible:

• As of April 2025, developers had determined whether works are required on 3,824 buildings (85% of buildings for which they are responsible). Developers have made 519 of those determinations since October 2024, the point at which the joint plan was agreed. If this accelerated rate continues, developers would be on track to have made determinations for around 90% of their buildings by July 2025, falling narrowly short of the 100% stretch target in the joint plan. We are pushing developers hard to achieve the stretch target and working to unblock cases where progress has stalled due to disputes between the developer and another party.
• As of April 2025, developers had started or completed remedial works on 882 unsafe buildings (47% of the unsafe buildings which developers are remediating themselves). Compared to the 6 months prior to October 2024, Developers have accelerated the rate of starts but will need to go faster still to hit the stretch targets in July 2026 and July 2027. We will continue to push and work with developers to accelerate at pace without sacrificing quality.

A small number of developers are making significantly slower progress than their peers. We have required those developers to implement improvement plans, and report to senior officials and dedicated caseworkers on progress. Failure to meet legal obligations will result in increasingly severe consequences, up to and including statutory prohibitions on their ability to operate in the market.

We publish quarterly progress reports on the progress that developers are making on gov.uk, including an interactive dashboard comparing the progress any developer is making to that being made by others. We will publish the next quarterly report and dashboard in September 2025.

In line with the joint plan, government and developers established a Remediation Action Group in January 2025 to overcome real-world barriers to remediation and improve resident experience. Since January, we have invited feedback from a cladding action group about the lived experience of residents in affected buildings and shared best practice on engaging residents and leaseholders before, during, and after remedial works. This included tips on implementing the Code of Practice for the Remediation of Residential Buildings and issuing comfort letters that residents and leaseholders can use to reassure lenders and insurers that remedial works are in progress and thereby make it easier for them to sell or re-mortgage homes. We know that the resident and leaseholder experience remains inconsistent and we are committed to delivering meaningful and lasting improvements.

Ministers and officials have met with Responsible Entities and developers linked to a high number of buildings where progress has slowed due to a dispute, brokering solutions that have unblocked delays and enabled assessments and remediation to proceed. We published guidance for Responsible Entities in March 2025 to reduce the number of such disputes that arise through mediation. Developers are expected to pay for the mediation so that costs cannot be passed on to leaseholders. In July, we published further guidance to address common misconceptions relating to the Developer Remediation Contract which could otherwise lead to delays.

We have worked to reduce avoidable delays in developers securing Building Safety Regulator (BSR) approval for remedial works on buildings over 18m, without compromising building safety. The Remediation Action Group has offered developers and BSR a regular forum to share actionable feedback about how to improve applications submitted by developers and how to overcome avoidable administrative bottlenecks in how applications are processed. This work will continue.

While it is encouraging that developer-led remediation has begun accelerating over the first six months of the joint plan, there is a lot more to do. Developers, government and other parties will continue to work hard to meet the challenging stretch targets we set ourselves in the RAP. Residents and leaseholders expect and deserve nothing less.

Streamlining delivery

Accelerating the pace of remediation at the scale we need to see carries the risk that the system is unable to keep up with ever increasing demands.

In the RAP, we explained how we are driving pace through our existing funding schemes, and that all buildings starting remediation outside of London are now part of the newer Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) programme. Since June 2023, over 1,000 buildings have applied to the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS), with 753 being made eligible, of which 711 have progressed through to sign grant agreements. 130 have started on site, of which 43 have completed works.

We said we would seek opportunities to exploit the benefits of the CSS further and enable more buildings in government schemes to benefit from the CSS’s automated processes, which are designed to help increase the pace of remediation, reduce costs, enhance service delivery and improve traceability through the system. Since October 2024, a further 58 high-rise (18m+) buildings have transferred from the Building Safety Fund to the CSS, giving a total of 182 that have transferred, of which 5 buildings that had not yet started on site at the time of transfer have now started or completed remediation works. We are exploring opportunities for transferring further eligible high-rise buildings to the scheme.

Improving the operations and capacity of the Building Safety Regulator

As a sign of our commitment to move at pace on implementing the Grenfell Inquiry’s recommendations, we are taking the initial steps towards a single construction regulator by supporting the Building Safety Regulator to move into a new phase of its operations. This government recognises the operational challenges that the BSR and the wider sector are facing in their implementation, including delays to remediation projects. We have therefore been working urgently to address operational challenges so that the BSR works effectively - enabling a system that balances proportionate regulation without compromising safety outcomes.

Last month, we announced a step-change in BSR operations:

• We are investing in strengthened and dedicated leadership in the BSR to lead the transition of its operations out of HSE in the future and to provide a dedicated focus to its operations. Andy Roe has been appointed as non-executive chair of a shadow board of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), pending the establishment of a new body to take on the functions of the BSR from the HSE. This is part of initial steps towards creating a single construction regulator. Andy Roe brings a wealth of experience to the role following a career of organisational transformation, industry experience, and strong relationships with the sector - and has played an integral role within the building safety regime since its inception. We will also introduce a new Chief Executive Officer to lead the BSR, Charlie Pugsley.
• The BSR is implementing a new Fast Track Process. This will bring building inspector and engineer capacity directly into the BSR to enable a rapid acceleration to the processing of existing newbuild cases and remediation decisions. Alongside this, we are working hard to partner with industry to deliver results – and will shortly support the publication of industry guidance to improve the quality of applications - and so reduce processing times. To ensure transparency, the BSR will publish key performance related information quarterly, in the coming weeks. These changes will see no compromise in the standards expected of design and construction.
• We are bolstering long-term investment in the capacity of the BSR and building capacity within industry. The BSR will recruit more than 100 members of staff by the end of the year to enhance operations.

These changes position the BSR for the coming years, demonstrating the commitment of government to invest in safety and residents.

Improving the remediation assessment pathway

Effective remediation relies on having consistent and good quality fire risk appraisals (FRAEWs) that are clear about what work is required. The ability for different parties to commission multiple assessments for the same building can lead to uncertainty and slows progress. We will tighten statutory standards and oversight of FRAEWs to align with the mature processes of assessment and audit undertaken by competent professionals through the government’s grant programmes and developer-led remediation. When parliamentary time allows, we will legally require FRAEWs to follow the PAS 9980 framework, they must be conducted by assessors who meet specified requirements, and approved audits will be undertaken to ensure consistency and quality. This will reduce conflicting advice, clarify the work required, and help remediation start sooner. PAS 9980 is currently under review to ensure it reflects the latest best practice, with updated guidance expected in early 2026.

Action to ensure supply chain capacity and ensure best value for taxpayers

The RAP also set out measures to help ensure capacity and value throughout the remediation supply chain.

Pipeline publication

In response to concerns around future demand and costs, we committed to publishing pipeline data from our major remediation programmes to give greater confidence to contractors to invest in capacity and competence development. Data is already being shared at well-established industry engagement sessions, and further work on the publication of pipeline data is being led by Homes England. Homes England are working to promote the remediation pipelines for industry via a portal which is being finalised and will go live later this year.

Blockers to pace

We are also tackling two key blockers to increasing the pace of remediation - 1) limited capacity and competence and 2) uncertainty around costs.

To address the first, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has secured a supplier to deliver Rainscreen Façade Installer Training. This pilot programme, launching in the Autumn, will upskill façade installers and site supervisors, provide recognised qualifications, and raise industry standards - ensuring more projects can get underway faster. Cladders have also been added to the existing Temporary Shortage List (previously Immigration Salary List) to boost visa applications and increase sector capacity in the near term, strengthening the UK workforce and accelerating remediation.

Understanding cost and value

Secondly, to continually improve cost certainty, we’ve also published Unit Cost Analysis, and will continue to do so annually, to make pricing more transparent. This helps applicants and the supply chain understand what represents best value for money, supporting faster procurement and delivery. Moving forward, this Unit Cost Analysis will also highlight any market price reaction to changes in the pace of remediation works as a result of the policies in the RAP. We will continue to work with industry to manage pressure on market capacity. We will continually monitor and act to maintain transparency in the supplier market to drive competition and focus on best value for taxpayers.

Taking action against construction product manufacturers

It is unacceptable that construction product manufacturers have not yet made a fair contribution to fixing the building safety crisis. We want to ensure those impacted by manufacturer failings have access to redress routes for past and any future failings.

In the RAP, we set out the government’s initial actions, including enforcement by the National Regulator for Construction Products, new powers under the Building Safety Act, and a commitment to system-wide reform of the regulatory regime. This includes a consultation on introducing robust sanctions, penalties and liabilities for manufacturers.

The Construction Products Reform Green Paper, published on 26 February 2025, set out government’s commitment for system wide reform of the construction products regime. As part of this, we are reviewing existing redress routes to ensure they support recovery of costs from construction product manufacturers where appropriate. Following our consideration of the insights received during the consultation period of the green paper, we will consider whether any changes are required to improve routes to redress.

Objective 2: identify all 11m+ residential buildings with unsafe cladding

We are taking decisive steps to ensure buildings with known unsafe cladding are rapidly fixed.

But too many unsafe buildings remain unidentified - especially those between 11 and 18 metres - delaying vital remediation and leaving residents at risk.

To fix this, we launched a national identification drive in November 2024, working with Homes England to locate 11m+ buildings that may need remediation. Using Ordnance Survey data, we adopted a data-led approach to pinpoint the buildings that matter. At the time of the RAP’s publication, only 5% of records had been reviewed. Since then, Homes England has made rapid progress - completing reviews of 212,000 records by March 2025. The reviews continue on the three-storey data and are on track to identify the vast majority of relevant 11m+ buildings with potentially unsafe cladding by the end of the year, with 77,854 record reviews already completed to date.

All buildings of 4 storeys or more identified in Ordnance Survey data have been reviewed for potentially unsafe cladding, and Homes England is now investigating 4,700 buildings for unsafe cladding. This is down from 5,800 originally identified as part of the review process and 1,400 buildings identified from other sources such as the CSS Tell Us tool. While only some of these buildings will require remediation, this work is essential to ensure that those which do are identified and addressed as quickly as possible. Where cladding is visible and the building is not already part of a remediation programme, the responsible parties are being contacted as part of a targeted communications strategy through the CSS. This begins with letters issued every 10 days, advising on risk assessments and, where necessary, steps to remediate – with buildings being escalated to local regulators where needed to get answers and drive action.

If you are concerned about the life-safety fire risks on the external walls of your building, please let us know using Homes England’s Tell-Us Tool. Where a building is suspected to have unsafe cladding, Homes England is actively supporting applications to the CSS to undertake a fire risk appraisal of external walls (FRAEW).

A barrier to identifying unsafe 11m+ buildings is that details on buildings with cladding are held across multiple databases at the national and local level. This creates a risk that buildings may  be overlooked, or that regulatory actions could be duplicated. The National Remediation System, run by Homes England, will become the single source of reference for all buildings over 11m – bringing together local intelligence and speeding up confirmation of which buildings need addressing.

A phased rollout is underway, starting with Fire and Rescue Services and local authorities. Homes England has trained and provided access to the National Remediation system to all 44 Fire and Rescue services and over 200 local authorities with at least 50 or more buildings. We will continue to work closely with local authorities and Fire and Rescue Services as the rollout completes. Access to the National Remediation System will ensure we are using both a national delivery infrastructure and local knowledge to determine which buildings should be included or excluded from remediation programmes, in order to better understand the scale and reach of the problem and to improve the pace of the pull in work, and accelerate remediation. By summer 2025, social housing and Responsible Actors Scheme data will also be integrated, bringing all programmes into one streamlined system, regardless of tenure, making it easier to report on progress and hold to account landlords who are failing their residents to account.

In addition, Homes England has given all metro mayors and the Greater London Authority access to better data about buildings and progress of remediation, helping them to implement their Local Remediation Acceleration Plans.

Objective 3: support residents

As we continue to identify and remediate 11m+ buildings with unsafe cladding, it is clear that more must be done to protect residents and leaseholders - some of whom continue to face crippling bills and significant uncertainty while they wait for works to begin.

Buildings under 11 metres

We have investigated all under 11m buildings brought to our attention since 2022. The vast majority have not required cladding remediation works, and fire risks have often been addressed through proportionate lower-cost mitigation measures. Only a limited number of buildings have been found to require cladding remediation.

To ensure that cladding remediation funding is driven by risk, rather than an arbitrary height requirement, we will provide funding in those exceptional cases where multi-occupied residential buildings under 11 metres have life-critical fire safety risks from cladding and do not have an alternative route to funding. This will protect leaseholders from unjust costs and provide confidence to the housing market.

Responsible Persons such as building owners remain responsible for ensuring that a building is safe and that life-critical defects are addressed.

Putting residents’ safety and needs at the heart of remediation

Residents must be protected while building work is underway. In the RAP, we announced our intention to strengthen the obligations of the Code of Practice for the Remediation of Residential Buildings, to ensure those responsible for remediation inform, consider, and take reasonable steps to mitigate the impact on residents. As outlined in this update, social landlords have now signed the joint plan for remediation. This means that all social housing providers who have signed the plan have agreed to follow the terms of the Code of Practice. We continue to work with developers to improve the resident experience following similar commitments through their joint plan.

As part of the Code of Practice, this Autumn, we will outline the health and safety information residents should receive. This will draw on existing guidance from Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to support residents in understanding their rights, what to expect, and how to raise concerns if they believe something is unsafe. Strengthening accountability and improving delivery standards will ensure that residents are placed at the heart of building safety.

Protecting residents from extreme building insurance costs

As outlined in the RAP, some residents face unacceptably high insurance premiums due to fire safety issues. The industry-led Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility has been renewed for a second year and is a viable option for building owners trying to find the best deal for their residents. In the first 12 months, over 760 buildings have been supported by the Facility, and now even more buildings can benefit from cover available as the limit has increased up to £75 million.

In the RAP we announced we would engage with the insurance industry to consider whether, for the duration of the remediation programmes, we might support industry to reduce unaffordable insurance bills. We have been engaging with industry on this but also need to collect data to test the feasibility and scope of any options for government support. In May, we launched the Remediation Programme Insurance Survey to gather this data from buildings in all remediation programmes across the UK. This one-off survey will directly inform government policy development and should be completed by the responsible entity, or whoever arranges the buildings insurance, for each building with fire safety issues. We call on responsible entities to complete the survey here by 31 July and alert the department if residents have concerns about availability or affordability of buildings insurance. Looking further ahead, the collection of insurance data has been built into the long-term plan for the National Remediation System and will enable analysis of costs from the start of remediation up until the end to assess the impact of remediation.

Alongside the publication of the RAP in December, we also launched a joint public consultation with the Welsh Government on proposals to address the practice of landlords, freeholders and managing agents receiving opaque and disproportionate commissions for arranging and managing insurance at the expense of their leaseholders. The response to this consultation has now been published here. We remain committed to taking action in this area to ensure the system is fairer and more transparent for leaseholders, and we will set out detailed proposals in due course.

We are also currently consulting on a measure to require that landlords provide leaseholders with specified information on their buildings insurance contract. This is part of the government’s consultation on strengthening leaseholder protections, running from the 4 July to 26 September 2025. This includes increasing transparency of service charges and scrapping the presumption that the leaseholder should pay their landlords’ litigation costs, thereby removing a significant barrier to challenging poor practice. We encourage leaseholders, as well as industry, to respond to the consultation so that we can get the detail of this right to empower and protect leaseholders. You can respond here by 26 September 2025.

Protecting residents from costs of interim measures

Inefficient waking watch measures are still being used too often, with costs being passed onto leaseholders. We are making new funding available to deliver a longer-term and more sustainable approach to funding common fire alarms where they are needed, building on the success of the Waking Watch Replacement Fund (WWRF). Access to funding for all eligible buildings will be made easier and more efficient through integration into the National Remediation System. This new approach will help keep residents living safely in their homes and protect leaseholders from the ongoing cost of interim measures whilst they wait for remediation to be completed in their buildings

Leaseholder protections

The leaseholder protection package continues to protect innocent leaseholders from the unfair burden of crippling bills for fixing historical safety defects to make their home safe. These protections, alongside government funding schemes which apply to eligible buildings irrespective of the qualifying status of a specific lease, provide a comprehensive package of support for leaseholders. We are not currently considering expanding the leaseholder protections further, however, we recognise the enduring question of the “in perpetuity” status of non-qualifying leases and are carefully considering what might be done to address this.

Shared Ownership

Owners of Shared Ownership properties (shared owners) affected by building safety issues can face particular challenges around high costs and difficulties in selling when they wish to move on. We have taken a number of steps to support these shared owners. As of 15 July, 95 social landlords have signed up to the Joint Plan and committing them to “allow shared owners to sub-let all properties in England affected by the building safety crisis at up to market rent level, providing that shared owners try to sell after any required remediation is completed”. Housing Associations recognise that selling as a shared owner can be a complicated process, even after remediation. They have committed to “working with shared owners to make sure that the above flexibility continues to apply where demonstrable efforts are being made to sell the property and publishing these policies on their website”. This new commitment will help Shared Owners in 67% of buildings.

When selling their homes, the Capital Funding Guides (which set out the conditions for funding delivery of shared ownership homes) make clear that social landlords should assist shared owners in obtaining valuations that reflect market conditions, including challenges posed by building safety issues, to avoid below-market sales. Furthermore, we have permitted social landlords to use the Recycled Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) to repurchase shared ownership leases where owners cannot sell due to building safety issues. While the RCGF typically supports new affordable housing, this flexibility can help in handling remediation-related challenges. We are continuing to consider what more can be done to support shared owners with building safety challenges, including ensuring that the measures above are clearly communicated to those affected.

Speeding up the remediation of evacuated buildings

When buildings are evacuated due to life-threatening fire safety risks, residents are kept safe, but once the danger is no longer immediate, there is no obligation on landlords to act quickly to fix the underlying problems. This can leave homes empty for longer than needed, causing unnecessary disruption for residents and driving up costs. We’re cracking down on this complacency. We are introducing a new duty on Fire and Rescue Services and local authorities to issue an Enforcement or Improvement Notice at the same time as applicable evacuation orders - Prohibition Orders or Notices. This new duty will ensure landlords remain under legal pressure to fix the risks swiftly - whether or not residents are still in the building. Failure to comply with these notices is a criminal offence.

Ensuring industry pays

Building Safety Levy

The Building Safety Levy will come into effect from 1 October 2026, to raise around £3.4 billion over roughly 10 years. On 10 July, we laid draft levy regulations in Parliament for approval and published guidance and other supporting material. Local authorities, registered building control approvers, the Building Safety Regulator, and developers should now begin preparations to implement the levy ahead of 1 October 2026 when it comes into force. The levy rates, per local authority area, were published on 24 March. We will be providing support to all stakeholders from now until the levy comes into effect through a programme of engagement directly with stakeholders or facilitated by their representative bodies.

Developer Debt Collection Programme

The RAP announced a Developer Debt Collection programme where 49 (now 53) of the largest building developers in the country were invited to sign a legally binding contract to hold them responsible for repaying the taxpayer for government funds used to remediate life-critical fire safety defects in the buildings they developed. This programme will recover circa £700 million, with the initial focus on billing for completed buildings. The programme was operationalised in 2024/25 and will ramp up across 2025/26, with projected income of circa £120 million expected for 2025/26.

Next steps

Through the Remediation Acceleration Plan and the further measures outlined in this update, we have set out those actions needed to get buildings fixed faster, identify those remaining 11m+ buildings with unsafe cladding and ensure that residents are protected.

We have removed the obstacles – and the excuses – for landlords to fix their buildings. We have enlisted new partnerships and taken steps to ensure that everyone with a role to play can do so as effectively as possible, and with the utmost urgency. We have made our expectations even clearer and have set out the appropriate consequences for those who do not meet them.

In order to deliver the commitments outlined here, we will be bringing forward a Remediation Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows. This bill will be focussed on accelerating the remediation of historic unsafe cladding and protecting residents in the process. That includes creating certainty on which buildings need remediation and who is responsible for remediating them; making obligations clearer for assessing and completing regulation remediation through the Legal Duty to Remediate, with severe consequences for non-compliance and a backstop for government to bring an end to the building safety crisis; and giving residents greater control in situations of acute harm where landlords have neglected their responsibilities. This will finally allow residents to feel safe in their homes and move on with their lives.