Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her Budget speech to announce more than £1bn for cladding remediation, alongside further billions to support housebuilding.
Government investment in removing unsafe cladding, including new funds for social housing remediation, will exceed £1bn in 2025/2026, budget documents show.
Construction News understands the investment will be spread out between the two existing government remediation funds, the Cladding Safety Scheme and Building Safety Fund. More details will be set out later this autumn, the government said.
As of September, only 1,412 of the 4,821 buildings identified with unsafe cladding have completed remediation works – about 29 per cent. A further 1,000 buildings have started work to remove cladding, according to data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG).
Prime Minister Keir Starmer had pledged to speed up the remediation of buildings with dangerous cladding after the Grenfell Tower Inquiry released its final report, promising to set out further steps in the coming months.
The additional funding was welcomed by RSM UK national head of construction Kelly Boorman, who said the investment signals “a crucial step in the right direction”.
However, Nicola John, managing director at hardware specialist Fire Door Maintenance, said the investment was “too little, too late”.
She said: “Instead of addressing the root causes of poor fire safety standards, this step only addresses the symptoms.”
The government announced a £5bn settlement for housing investment in 2025-2026 and an additional £3bn for SMEs and the build-to-rent sector in the form of housing guarantee schemes, which offer developers access to lower-cost loans.
The MHCLG’s’s capital expenditure limit will increase to £8.8bn by 2025-2026, up from £8.5bn in 2024-2025.
Paul Rickard, managing director at developer Pocket Living, said the Budget announcement was a welcome step forward as the sector awaits a long-term housing strategy in the spring.
He said: “The number of SME housebuilders has dwindled from 12,500 in the 1980s to just 2,500 today, and if the Government is to have any hope of hitting its 1.5 million new homes target, it has to get them building again.”
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors president Tina Paillet said that the funding package “should help funnel more money into development”, after recent rises in repair and maintenance costs have squeezed the available capital for housing associations to deliver schemes.
Reeves also confirmed a £500m top-up for the next round of Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme (AHP), announced earlier this week.
Matt Vincent, operations director at SME housebuilder Spitfire Homes, said he was hopeful AHP investment would filter through to Section 106 homes “that have experienced a lack of funding over the past 12 months and therefore suppressed delivery.”
However, some have raised concerns about a lack of talent to deliver Reeves’ ambitious housing pledges.
Building Cost Information Service chief economist David Crosthwaite said it still remains unclear “how the Government intends to meet its self-imposed target of building 1.5 million homes over the life of the Parliament, without tackling the existing skills shortage.”
Construction Industry Training Board chief executive Tim Balcon said an extra 152,000 workers are needed to fulfil the government’s housebuilding plans – in addition to the 250,000-worker shortfall it has already predicted.
Tanguy Guerer, head of preconstruction at Legendre UK, said that investment in construction skills is needed to enable projects come to fruition.
He said: “We need to ensure the priority is investment in high quality apprenticeships and training, responding to the needs of the industry.
“We also want to see easier pathways between universities and construction companies created – to attract and retain future talent.”
