Further 7,000 residential buildings outside official statistics could be unsafe, warns minister

A further 7,000 residential buildings that are not being remediated through the official cladding safety scheme could be unsafe, the building safety minister has warned.

Official figures last month showed remediation work has yet to start on around half of the 4,630 buildings identified as unsafe.

However Rushanara Ali told parliament yesterday that “counting the buildings that we know about is not enough” and there could be many more outside the official statistics.

She said: “We estimate that as many as 7,000 buildings that need remediation have not yet applied for the cladding safety scheme.

“That is a maximum estimate—there may well be fewer than that—but those responsible for those buildings have no excuse for failing to apply. We will work with regulators to ensure that the buildings are identified.”

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The cladding safety scheme, announced in 2022, provides funding to address “life safety fire risks” in residential buildings over 11m in height (11m to 18m in London).

The pace of remediation has become a major topic of discussion in recent weeks, following last month’s fire in Dagenham that engulfed a seven-storey building and last week’s Grenfell Inquiry report.

Following the fire, which required 40 fire engines and 225 firefighters to put out, housing secretary Angela Rayner demanded faster progress on making buildings safe.