Despite increased monitoring of high-rise buildings at risk from dangerous cladding in the UK, the pace of actual remediation work is stalling. Between October 2024 and October 2025, the number of buildings actively undergoing remediation fell by 22.8%, indicating a growing gap between identifying problems and fixing them. As of August 2024, only 1,392 buildings had completed remediation, representing a mere 12-16% of the estimated total of 9,000-12,000 buildings over 11 meters needing work, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG).
The total cost to fix unsafe cladding on all residential buildings over 11 meters in England is estimated to be between $12.6 billion and $22.4 billion, with a current best estimate of $16.6 billion. The government has committed $5.1 billion in taxpayer contributions towards this effort. However, internal modeling suggests that remediation for all affected buildings over 11 meters will not be complete until 2035, a date contingent on successful implementation of funding mechanisms and cooperation from developers.
Financial experts are critical of the government's approach, with Michelle Lawson, director at Lawson Financial, describing it as "shambolic" due to the lack of adequate infrastructure for remediation. Leaseholders are bearing significant penalties, including soaring insurance costs and the expense of "night-watch" services. Property Inspect highlighted that workflow inefficiencies, rather than just construction capacity, are a major hindrance to progress, pointing to fragmented documentation and slow manual review processes.
To accelerate remediation, Property Inspect suggests three key system reforms: standardized digital evidence packs, a national remediation tracker, and linking funding to compliance standards. As of August 2024, MHCLG had spent $2.3 billion on remediation, but risks remain for the government to stay within its $5.1 billion cap, particularly concerning recouping funds from developers and the eventual collection of the new Building Safety Levy. Remediation work has not yet started on half of the identified at-risk buildings, and up to 60% of the total affected buildings still need to be identified.
