Behind the façade - what is really happening with cladding remediation

Eight years after Grenfell, thousands of UK buildings remain wrapped in unsafe classing, despite billions in funding and mounting pressure for reform. George Edwardes from the Fire Protection Association investigates why progress has stalled, the human cost for residents, and what must change to prevent future tragedy

Introduction

Cladding is the outer layer of a building, often added for insulation, weather protection, or aesthetics. But when it is made from combustible materials, it can pose serious fire risks, as tragically highlighted by the Grenfell Tower Fire in 2017.

Despite billions in government funding and years of public scrutiny, remediation progress has been painfully slow, with many residents still living in buildings deemed unsafe. The article explores the current landscape of cladding remediation in the UK, the impact on tenants, and the challenges faced by industry, insurers, and government.

Current state

Half of all affected buildings are yet to begin remediation, despite it being eight years since the launch of the Building Safety Programme, which was set up to identify and address unsafe cladding across the UK.     

To better understand the problem, buildings are typically split into three height categories: High Rise (over 18 m); Mid Rise (11-18 m); and Low Rise (below 11 m).     

High-rise buildings have been the government’s immediate focus. Encouragingly, most with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding have either started or completed remediation, with just 4 per cent remaining. However, for high-rise buildings with other dangerous materials, only 46 per cent have completed remediation works (Estimates based on the Building Safety Fund as of February 2025). The government now aims to finish all high-rise remediation by 2029.     

The urgency of this work was brought into sharp focus by the major fire at a high-rise block in Dagenham in August 2024. That building was nearing the end of its remediation process when the old cladding caught fire. The blaze caused significant damage, affecting around 60 per cent of the first four floors and over 80 per cent of the fifth and sixth. The block was ultimately demolished in December 2024.     

Mid-rise building remediation has only just started. Just 4 per cent of buildings in scope have completed remediation, while a staggering 86 per cent yet to even begin (Estimates based on the Cladding Safety Scheme as of February 2025). The government has pledged that all mid-rise buildings will have begun remediation by 2029. Meanwhile we continue to have significant cladding fires such as Barking (2019), The Cube – Bolton (2019), Crystal Court (2021), New Providence Wharf (2021), and Mosaic in Slough (2024).

Low-rise cladding isn’t even on the government’s radar yet, despite a significant fire in Finchley in June 2023 where the PVC cladding caught fire and spread to three other buildings. The government currently judges risk based on height, leaving a blind spot for low and wide buildings such as terraced houses or hospitals. The government has announced that this process of basing risk solely on height is currently under review.

Impact on residents

Thousands of residents remain trapped in buildings with unsafe cladding, unable to sell their homes. It’s hard to overstate how unmooring it feels to see the value of the property you’ve worked your whole life for marked down to £0 by a professional evaluation.

I’ve had strangers call me in tears, emotionally shattered, desperate for answers that don’t exist. Many are facing maintenance costs that have doubled or tripled. Costs they have no choice but to pay, because they can’t move out. If they can’t keep up, they face bankruptcy.     

While the Building Safety Act protects leaseholders from paying for historical defects specifically related to the cladding system, they may still be financially liable for other safety-critical issues uncovered during the process. These include: waking watch services; fire door remediation; missing fire compartmentation; inadequate structural protection or fire design; new evacuation systems; professional fees for remediation surveys and safety assessments.     

These are all latent defects – serious failures that have only come to light because of the cladding crisis. They shouldn’t have existed in the first place.     

On top of this residents are facing rising insurance premiums because their building isn’t as safe as the insurers originally thought it was.     

And then there’s the lack of communication. Since 2023, residents have the legal right to be informed of the key findings in their building’s fire risk assessments. But when you speak to residents, this often isn’t happening. Many still feel completely in the dark about the safety of their own homes.     

The emotional toll is profound. Two-thirds of residents say the situation is impacting their mental health. In one heartbreaking case in 2021, a woman who couldn’t see any other options, took her own life.

Why does it take so long?

This is a simplistic summary of the steps required to remediate a building with unsafe cladding: identify and assess defects – often requiring a PAS 9980 assessment and EWS1 form completion by a competent professional; determine liability – often requiring legal or negotiated resolution; explore funding options from relevant grants; plan remediated work; and complete the works and reassess.

The government says the main barriers to pace are: landlords being reluctant to act; not enough inspectors to enforce new regulations; social housing providers having varying capabilities and access to funding; disputes between developers and freeholders over access to buildings, scope of works, quality assessments etc.; and contractor capacity and a lack of skilled professionals to complete the works.

What is EWS1 and PAS 9980?

One of the first challenges in cladding remediation is identifying and assessing the external wall system. This is typically done through a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW), following the methodology set out in PAS 9980. The results of this assessment can then be used to complete an EWS1 form — a document used to confirm to lenders and valuers that the cladding has been properly assessed and, if necessary, remediated.     

To clarify: PAS 9980 is a method for assessing the fire risk of an external wall system and EWS1 is the process through which building owners confirm to mortgage lenders that the external wall has been assessed for the likelihood of requiring remediation.     

PAS 9980 was fast-tracked and introduced in 2022 to accelerate cladding remediation and bring consistency to how fire risks are assessed. Its purpose is not to resolve all fire safety concerns, but rather to address those that pose an immediate risk to life.     

It has been widely praised for speeding up the remediation process and creating a more structured approach. However, it has also attracted criticism, particularly over the cost of assessments, the time they take to complete, and concerns about inconsistent or unreliable conclusions.     

A key challenge is the limited number of qualified professionals available to carry out these assessments. That number may shrink further, as the Home Office has confirmed that all fire risk assessors will soon need to be third-party certified by UKAS, with a legal mandate expected later this year. While this change is likely to be welcomed for raising standards, it may create short-term pressure on the already limited pool of assessors.     

The authors of PAS 9980 released a paper last year highlighting instances of misinterpretation. Some assessors were carrying out unnecessarily detailed assessments on buildings that didn’t require them, while others were doing too little and not following the proper methodology.     

In response to this, PAS 9980 has been revised to improve clarity and reduce ambiguity. The draft revision is currently open for public comment on the BSI website until 6th June. While the updated version doesn’t introduce fundamental changes, it aims to make the document shorter, clearer, and easier to apply. Importantly, assessments carried out using the updated version should not lead to different outcomes from those carried out using the current edition.

Insurers’ perspective

While cladding remediation work is ongoing across the country, it often focuses solely on 
life safety, in other words, ensuring everyone can escape the building before the fire spreads. It often doesn’t give any consideration to property protection.     

For example, PAS 9980, the guidance often used in these assessments, allows for what it terms a “tolerable rate of fire spread” — which can mean fire spreading from floor to floor in as little as 15 minutes. It also accepts the possibility that fires may break out in multiple compartments of a building.     

But as the Dagenham fire demonstrated, even if the building only has a small percentage of combustible materials this can result in significant damage. In that case, the damage was so severe the building had to be demolished. Insurance is based on risk. Insurers have to consider if a cladding fire could lead to a total loss of the building.     

Insurers have several concerns about the current approach to remediation: cladding is often not being remediated to the same standards required for new buildings; assessors are allowed to make judgments about cladding safety based on opinion or desktop reviews, without the support of fire test data; significant amounts of combustible material are being permitted to remain on buildings.

From the insurer’s perspective, there are steps that could be taken to reduce insurance premiums and improve the resilience of buildings: use materials backed by robust fire test data; avoid relying solely on fire engineering judgement; maximise the use of non-combustible materials; improve internal compartmentation to slow fire spread within the building; install sprinklers to suppress a fire before it’s grown out of control; and design the building to resist fire without depending on fire service intervention.

Insurers emphasise the importance of being involved early in the remediation process — not brought in after the work is complete, when it may be too late to make necessary changes. Unfortunately, neither PAS 9980 nor government guidance currently accounts for property protection, and insurers are often only engaged at the end of a project.

Summary

Eight years on from the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the UK continues to grapple with the complex and emotionally charged challenge of cladding remediation. Despite billions in government funding and multiple new policies, many buildings are still unsafe, and thousands of residents remain trapped in homes they cannot sell — facing financial strain, rising insurance premiums, and mounting mental health pressures.     

While progress has been made in high-rise buildings with the most dangerous cladding types, the majority of mid-rise and low-rise buildings remain untouched. Fires continue to highlight ongoing risks, and the government’s current height-based approach is under review.     

The remediation process itself is long and complex, involving building assessments, liability disputes, funding challenges, and a shortage of skilled professionals. PAS 9980 has brought consistency to risk assessments but has also faced criticism for cost, complexity, and inconsistent application. It is now under revision to improve clarity without changing its core outcomes.     

From an insurer’s perspective, current approaches focus too heavily on life safety, often overlooking property protection. Concerns remain about combustible materials being left in place, reliance on desktop assessments, and a lack of early insurer involvement. Measures like improved compartmentation, sprinklers, and non-combustible materials could improve both safety and insurability.     However, despite the slow and often frustrating pace of remediation, it is important to acknowledge the meaningful progress made since 2017. A number of key reforms and initiatives have helped reshape the UK’s cladding and building safety:     

2020 - Building Safety Fund launched, providing funding for remediating buildings over 18 m.     

2022 - PAS 9980 published, offering a consistent methodology for assessing fire risk in external wall systems.     

2022 - Building Safety Repairs Pledge signed by major developers, committing to remediate buildings over 11 m.     

2023 - Cladding Safety Scheme extended funding support to mid-rise buildings between 1-18 m.     

2024 - Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility introduced to improve the availability and affordability of insurance for higher-risk buildings.     

2024 – Grenfell Tower Inquiry concluded with the Phase 2 Report, with far-reaching recommendations for improving fire safety.     

2025 – Government committed to implementing all recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.