May 9 2019

The UK government has allocated £200m to fund the replacement of dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings where private developers have refused to step in and pay for expensive remedial work after some developers refused to pay for the work.

This would be allocated to around 170 high-rise buildings identified as being at risk – a further 23 social housing tower blocks will also be re-clad under a previous funding commitment.

Building owners now have three months to claim from the fund subject to a commitment to take ‘reasonable steps’ to recover costs from private developers.

Since the tragedy, some developers have reached agreements to replace cladding which fails to meet more stringent fire safety standards, including Taylor Wimpey which has pledged £10m to replace aluminium composite material at 300 Glasgow Harbour properties.

Edinburgh Napier University was also quick to replace Reynobond PE cladding from student residences at Fountain Park amid similar fears.

The funding confirmation comes two years on from the Grenfell Tower blaze which claimed the lives of 71 people, sparking revisions to building standards.

1 Comment

#1 Posted by Walt Disney on 10 May 2019 at 13:14 PM

Not without sympathy on this. Architects, specifiers and developers won't have done anything illegal. They will have complied with the building standards /regulations, deemed to satisfy details etc. and will have provided a myriad of test and agrement certificates. Unfortunately what they were complying with was wrong.

It feeds the popular narrative to talk about greedy developers, cost cutting local authorities and back handers to council officials, but that will not be the case in 99.9% of these cases. The facts will show that these buildings complied with building standards at the time of their construction.

Post your comments