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The problem we want to solve together

1.1 Government and the social landlords who commit to this joint plan want to work in partnership to accelerate remediation of unsafe homes and deliver better outcomes for residents.

1.2 Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, we have identified around 2,800 social housing residential buildings over 11 metres in height in England with unsafe cladding.

1.3 As of June 2025, remedial works had started on only 44% of those buildings and works had yet to start on over 1,500 buildings. This is too slow.

1.4 Meanwhile, residents in some social buildings experience unnecessary stress and disruption before, during and after remedial works.

How this joint plan will solve the problem

2.1 This joint plan goes significantly beyond the initial measures announced by the government in December 2024 (detail below). It sets stretch targets for when social buildings will be remediated, and the action that government, social landlords and regulators will take to achieve them.

2.2 At the heart of this plan is the decision taken by the government to commit over £1 billion of new investment to give social landlords equal access to government remediation schemes. This decision ends the two-tier approach inherited from the previous government. It addresses the single biggest barrier to remediation and paves a clear path for social landlords to make their buildings safe. The sector is ready to rise to this challenge.

2.3 In addition to accelerating remediation, government and social landlords want residents and leaseholders to feel better supported before, during and after remedial works. This includes:

a. Regular communication.
b. A remedial works plan that takes into account resident needs.
c. An easy way to demonstrate to valuers, lenders, and insurers that the building is being repaired, so that residents can insure or sell their homes if they choose.
d. Locking-in greater flexibility for shared owners to sub-let their homes under some circumstances.

2.4 In December 2024, the government published a Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP). In RAP, we recognised that social landlords are struggling to accelerate remediation at the same time as addressing other housing quality issues and building new homes. RAP identified barriers to remediation which included:

a. Many social landlords are struggling to access upfront capital for remediating their buildings at pace, while facing increasing pressures on their budgets. Budgets are stretched. While some social landlords have applied for and received government remediation funding, many reported that the rules of government remediation schemes made it difficult or impossible to access the support they needed.
b. Social landlords who applied for government remediation schemes are required to exhaust efforts to recover costs from third parties before they can access funding. This could lead to lengthy delays in making homes safe.
c. Some social landlords struggle to obtain the quantity and/ or quality of technical and professional capabilities necessary to remediate buildings at pace. This includes access to qualified fire safety assessors, technical experts and contractors.

2.5 In line with the actions that we announced in RAP in December 2024, government took initial steps to accelerate remediation of social housing:

a. Government increased funding for social landlords applying for government remediation funding so that remedial works can start sooner.
b. Government made sure that social landlords who are eligible to apply for government remediation funding do so, with a commitment to do the works quickly, by clarifying the rules of government remediation schemes, promoting them, and reaching out to eligible social landlords who may be in financial difficulty to encourage them to apply.
c. Government secured a commitment from major developers to make every effort to resolve by July 2025 all negotiations with social landlords over developer contributions towards the cost of remedial works in those social landlords’ buildings.
d. Recognising that these were only initial steps, the government worked with the sector to develop this long-term joint plan.

2.6 The governing thoughts guiding this joint plan are that:

a. Overcoming the barriers will require ongoing collaboration between government, social landlords, and national and local regulators.
b. All landlords (private and social) should work to the same accelerated timetable for remediation set out in RAP.
c. Government should do more to support social landlords who are trying to do the right thing, and social landlords should make full use of this support.
d. Any landlord who fails to identify and remediate their buildings without a demonstrably reasonable defence will face significant consequences.

2.7 This joint plan has the same objectives as the wider Remediation Acceleration Plan:

2.8 Under this joint plan, government and social landlords are committing to the target dates for remediation set out in the wider updated Remediation Acceleration Plan:

2.9 Our updated Remediation Acceleration Plan sets out action to accelerate remediation of all buildings. This joint plan sets out below additional actions that will overcome barriers to remediation of social buildings.

Our Actions

Objective 1: Fix buildings faster

2.10 We have identified most of the social buildings with unsafe cladding. We will remediate them at pace, even as we accelerate action to identify remaining unsafe buildings.

2.11 We will achieve this by doing the following:

Action 1. Social landlords will work to the accelerated timetable published in the Remediation Acceleration Plan:

a. by the end of 2029, every 18m+ residential building in a government funded scheme will be remediated.

b. by the end of 2029, every 11m+ building with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a date for completion, or its landlords will be liable for penalties.

Action 2. Government will give social landlords equal access to upfront capital for remediation through government remediation schemes, the same as that which is afforded to private building owners. We will change the rules of government remediation schemes so that:

a. Social homes will be eligible for support regardless of whether the resident is a social tenant or a leaseholder.

b. Social buildings will be eligible for remediation funding without having to demonstrate that the social landlord would otherwise be in financial distress.

c. Social landlords will be able to remediate their buildings and seek to recover costs from third parties in parallel, rather than in series. This will mean that works to make homes safe can start without waiting for lengthy cost-recovery efforts to be exhausted.

d. Homes England will offer social landlords wraparound support (pre- tender support payments and client-side support, which were previously only provided to privately owned buildings). This will help to make sure that remedial works can be delivered at pace.

Action 3. Government has identified a pipeline of buildings that will be eligible for government funding. Homes England will continue to work with social landlords to identify such buildings and is already contacting those who are responsible for those buildings to encourage them to apply.

Action 4. Social landlords will work with Homes England to exhaust every opportunity to access this enhanced support to deliver remediation to the required standard within the target period.

Action 5. Social landlords (alongside developers and contractors) will in good faith pursue opportunities to use out-of-court mediation/adjudication routes to resolve outstanding cost-recovery disputes that are delaying remedial works.

Action 6. NHF, LGA and other umbrella bodies will support social landlords to share and adopt best practice in relation to remediation, including joint procurement and cost-recovery.

Action 7. Subject to the will of Parliament, the government will bring into law a new statutory Duty to Remediate that will apply to all landlords. This Duty will require all landlords to take all necessary steps to assess and remediate all their +11m buildings that have life-critical, cladding-related fire safety defects by a specified date.

Action 8. Regulators will make sure that responsible parties will face significant sanctions if they fail to comply with the Duty to Remediate and other relevant legal obligations and cannot demonstrate a reasonable basis for this.

Action 9. Homes England will provide and run a single data platform (the National Remediation System) for social landlords to upload data on their buildings. Landlords, Homes England and MHCLG and regulators will access and use this data pursuant to our shared mission to find and fix unsafe buildings, and support affected residents.

Action 10. Homes England will offer social landlords training on using the National Remediation System and make available guidance materials.

Action 11. Social landlords will adopt the National Remediation System to report their data from the launch of the programme. They will provide regular reports, and a plan across multiple years. Social landlords will report on all 11m+ buildings on the NRS. This will include buildings that they have found to be safe, and progress on buildings that are found to require works.

Action 12. Government will publish quarterly data on the progress that social landlords are making to identify and remediate their buildings.

Objective 2: Identify all buildings with unsafe cladding

2.12 We have identified most - but not all - social buildings with unsafe cladding. We will work together urgently to identify all buildings at risk, based on robust safety assessments.

2.13 We will achieve this by doing the following:

Action 13. Social landlords will obtain a Fire Risk Assessment and – where needed - an up-to-date Fire Risk Appraisal of the External Wall System (FRAEW) for every +11m residential building by December 2027.

Action 14. Homes England and social landlords will use the National Remediation System to identify unsafe buildings.

Action 15. Homes England will make available to social landlords a panel of fire safety engineers to assist with carrying out those safety assessments.

Action 16. Home England will commission independent audits of assessments carried out by social landlords. This will be done on both grant-funded units and on self-funded units to make sure that there is independent validation of the works required. Homes England will make the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) FRAEW panel available to the sector.

Action 17. Government will make it mandatory for local authorities to continue collecting and reporting on remediation of social housing.

Objective 3: Support residents

2.14 Some residents, shared owners and leaseholders face anxiety, crippling bills and disruption while they wait for remediation to take place. We will improve support for them before, during and after remedial works.

2.15 We will achieve this by doing the following:

Action 18.       Social landlords will follow Homes England guidance on how to communicate with residents from before works commence (buildings awaiting a fire safety assessment). This included minimum compulsory communication and resident and leaseholder surveys at set points. Social landlords will upload evidence of resident and leaseholder communication for auditing as part of the CSS programme.

Action 19.        Social landlords will sign up and adhere to the Code of Practice for the remediation of residential buildings (published July 2023) during works. Social landlords will demonstrate that they are complying with the Code and make sure that sub-contractors working on remedial works understand and comply with the Code. In line with the Code, social landlords will make sure that residents in buildings undergoing remedial works are regularly informed of progress.

Action 20.       The Housing Ombudsman Service will promote best practice in resident communication by social landlords, applicable before, during and after remedial works and will monitor this. It will promote best practice against four communication standards: timeliness, transparency, tailoring and tone.

Action 21.       Social landlords will allow shared owners to sub-let all properties in England affected by the building safety crisis at up to market rent level, providing that shared owners try to sell after remediation is completed.

Action 22.       Housing Associations recognise that selling as a shared owner can be a complicated process, even after remediation. Housing Associations will work with shared owners to make sure that the above flexibility continues to apply where demonstrable efforts are being made to sell the property and will publish these policies on their website.