Claim based on desk-based survey of 2,856 buildings, with a quarter of bill to remediate social housing sector homes
Almost 9,000 mid-rise housing blocks are likely to need remediation work to bring them into line with fire safety requirements, government data has revealed.
The majority of these will require full remediation, which would cost an average of 拢640,000 to 拢790,000 per building.
Yesterday the government finally shared the detail behind its claim that fire safety repairs to blocks between 11 and 18 metres will cost around 拢4bn after being forced to by a committee of MPs.
The analysis shows that the 拢4bn claim 鈥� repeated numerous times by housing secretary Michael Gove but disputed by the housebuilding industry 鈥� comes from a desk-based survey of just 2,856 buildings.
It claims that the estimated cost of repairs to the buildings is between 拢3.1bn and 拢5.3bn.
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The figures are significant because they have been used by ministers to justify a series of revenue-raising exercises from the housebuilding and construction industry, including getting developers to sign the cladding pledge to repair their own properties going back 30 years, at a cost of at least 拢2bn, and the creation of a new 拢3bn building safety levy.
The analysis says that there are between 74,000 and 82,000 residential buildings of between 11 and 18 metres in height in England, of which between 6,220 and 8,890 鈥� based on the survey findings 鈥� are likely to need remediation. The majority of these, the research says, will require full remediation, which it says costs an average of 拢640,000 to 拢790,000 per building.
The figures come after both MPs and the Home Builders Federation (HBF) have been pressing the government to explain how it came to the 拢4bn figure. The HBF claims that its housebuilder members built just 10-20% of the number of blocks the department claims are likely to require repair.
In April the HBF鈥檚 executive chair Stewart Baseley wrote to Gove stating that 鈥渇or government to still be basing estimates of 11-18m buildings with safety issues on a theoretical exercise some five years after the Grenfell Tower fire is unsatisfactory鈥�.
He said that the HBF believed that a 鈥渧ery large proportion鈥� of the buildings in need of remediation were actually buildings much older than 30 years old, which had been turned into fire risks due to a refurbishment 鈥� many of which would be in the social housing sector. However, he said that it was impossible to tell without further 鈥渢ransparency鈥�.
The data published today states that as much as 拢1.2bn of the estimated remediation costs will be to repair homes in the social housing sector
The department published the analysis yesterday shortly after printing its response to the levelling up, housing and communities select committee鈥檚 report on building safety remediation and funding, which had demanded the department show its evidence for the figure.
In response to the demand, the government pointed to its publication of the data, and pledged that: 鈥淔urther analysis and data related to the building safety fund, external wall systems on high-rise residential buildings data collection will be published in due course.鈥�
In response to the publication of the analysis, a spokesperson for the HBF said the organisation had seen 鈥渆verything they put out this morning before鈥�, and that the data still includes 鈥渕assive assumptions which was what they were criticised for by the select committee.鈥�
The spokesperson added: 鈥淲e still await the detailed work they say they have done to get to the assumptions regarding the number of buildings, the number that need remediation, and the costs.鈥�
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