Government publishes Remediation Acceleration Plan

On Monday 2 December, the government published its Remediation Acceleration Plan. The plan details the current barriers to faster-paced building safety remediation and sets out its three objectives, with some detail on how these will be achieved.

In the plan, the government has set out a commitment to work alongside the sector on a long-term strategy to increase the pace of remediation of social housing buildings and overcome the particular barriers facing our sector. 

The NHF has been engaging with officials and politicians on the barriers to remediation for some time. We will ensure that there are further engagement opportunities for housing associations to shape the long-term strategy to support our sector.

As part of the plan, the government has set out a clear expectation that works to 18m+ buildings will be finished, and the works to 11-18m buildings will either be finished or have a completion date, by the end of 2029. It is our understanding that the long-term strategy will set out steps intended to support our sector to meet this deadline.

The Remediation Acceleration Plan

The Remediation Acceleration Plan aims to deliver three core objectives. We have highlighted the most relevant points for housing associations below.

Fix buildings faster

The government aims to remediate the buildings it knows about quickly and ensure that newly identified buildings are fixed faster than they previously have been.

This work includes a joint plan with developers who have signed the Developer Pledge to start or complete remediation on buildings they are responsible for by July 2027. This will include housing association owned buildings developed through section 106 agreements. We are engaging with the government to understand more about this plan.

As well as announcing further funding for social landlords to remediate buildings from April 2025, the government will also get in touch with housing associations that are eligible for existing government funding, to support them with applications. We will continue to engage with officials on the detail of further funding that will be available next year.

And, as mentioned above, the government will work with the sector to develop a long-term strategy to support social landlords to increase the pace of remediation. This strategy will address the barriers to remediation, and the NHF will be engaging our members to shape the strategy.

Identify all buildings with unsafe cladding

The government’s plan also seeks to ensure that all buildings with unsafe cladding are identified. To achieve this, it will legislate to require 11-18m buildings to be registered, so the government can be certain that all buildings have been assessed for safety issues and remediated appropriately.

The government also wants to take action to ensure that assessments are of a consistent and high quality, to support building owners to take action.

Support residents

The government wants to ensure that residents are supported while, or until, their building is remediated.

This work includes a commitment from the government to engage with the insurance industry on high insurance bills for buildings that need remediating. It also extends the existing Waking Watch Replacement Fund to March 2026.

The government also intends to enable shared owners living in affected buildings to sub-let their flats at market rates and will publish new guidance to support this.

The government sets out a range of other intentions, including taking action against building owners who don’t remediate their buildings, including financial and criminal penalties. Other work includes ensuring that the Code of Practice for remediation of residential buildings is adhered to, work to help overcome disputes on who pays to remediate a building, and work to increase capacity in the supply chain.

Next steps

We will be continuing to engage with the government as it develops its long-term strategy for building safety remediation in the social housing sector and will keep members updated with any relevant developments. If you have any questions about the plan or our engagement with government, please get in touch.