What is cladding remediation?

Learn more about cladding remediation works and how can Evolution5 help

Five years after the Grenfell Tower fire, the Building Safety Act was passed in 2022 to reform the safety requirements for higher-risk buildings and ultimately give their residents more rights and protection to ensure their homes are safer. Read on to learn what cladding remediation is and how Evolution5 can help.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry found that the building’s unsafe cladding was the primary cause of the fire spreading and since then, cladding on buildings across the UK is being reviewed and where necessary removed and replaced in a process called cladding remediation.

What is cladding remediation?

Cladding remediation is removing and replacing any part of a building’s cladding system deemed unsafe, particularly due to the material’s fire safety. In the most severe cases of unsafe cladding, the entire cladding system for a building may need to be replaced.

Nearly 500 buildings in England have been identified as needing cladding remediation with data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities confirming that 95% of all identified buildings have either completed or started remediation work to remove and replace unsafe cladding as of October 2022.

What types of cladding need remediation?

The need for cladding remediation particularly applies to the type of cladding used at Grenfell – Aluminium Composite Material, or ACM – made from polyethylene plastic sandwiched between two sheets of aluminium.

A range of other non-ACM cladding materials have also been identified as being unsafe in a fire and in need of remediation including High Pressure Laminate (HPL) panels.

To meet the new safety regulations, unsafe ACM and non-ACM cladding must be removed from high-rise residential buildings and replaced with materials of limited combustibility to help prevent the spread of fire.

Who is responsible?

The Building Safety Act protects leaseholders from all costs related to the remediation of unsafe cladding systems. Building owners and landlords must contribute to the costs of fixing their own buildings.

The government has committed to fully fund the removal and replacement of unsafe ACM cladding on social and private residential buildings of 18 metres or over through its £600m ACM Cladding Remediation Fund.

The £5.1bn Building Safety Fund (BSF) covers the cost of the removal and replacement of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on residential buildings over 18 metres in both the private and social housing sectors. The fund is available to leaseholders in all residential buildings in England offering protection to residents from the expense of unsafe cladding removal works.

The government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has also announced plans to remediate life-critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres by sourcing funding from the building industry through a developer pledge.

During the design, construction, and completion of buildings, the statutory duty holders (the client, principal designer, and principal contractor) are responsible for managing safety risks and ensuring compliance with the building regulations.

How Evolution5 can help

Evolution5 is a professional consultancy offering project management, cost management, employer’s agent, contract administration and clerk of works services for projects across London and the South East.

We have extensive experience in supporting clients in navigating the process of cladding remediation from insight and knowledge into alternative, safe, and compliant materials to working with reputable suppliers to carry out the remediation works.   

If you have any questions about cladding or cladding remediation for your building or project, please get in touch with us on 023 8040 5073.