Eight years after the Grenfell Tower fire exposed the deadly risks of unsafe cladding, the UK’s national remediation effort remains mired in delays, with new data revealing a system overwhelmed by administrative breakdowns rather than construction constraints.
As of January 2025, government figures show that just 29% of the 5,025 identified high-risk residential buildings over 11 metres have completed remediation.
While 2,410 buildings (48%) have started or finished work, an average of 62 new buildings are added to the remediation list each month – outpacing the average 58 completions recorded over the same period.
The result is a growing backlog rather than a shrinking one, with mounting frustration among leaseholders, remediation firms, and housing providers alike.
SYSTEMIC FLAWS
Property Inspect, a proptech firm specialising in building inspections, compliance workflows and remediation reporting, says the root of the crisis lies not in the availability of labour or materials, but in systemic flaws across the UK’s regulatory and reporting infrastructure.
Sián Hemming-Metcalfe, Operations Director at Property Inspect, says: “We are seeing delays not simply due to construction hold-ups, but because of systemic administrative and procedural bottlenecks.”
Among the most persistent issues cited are remediation signoffs taking up to 48 weeks, even post-construction, due to documentation errors, missing evidence, or incompatible file formats.
Contractors have also been unable to transition to new projects, placing strain on finances and timelines while housing providers are stuck between regulators and remediation teams, lacking visibility on causes of delay.
STRUCTURAL INEFFICIENCIES
Property Inspect says it routinely encounters inconsistent photographic evidence, documents lacking metadata or version control, ambiguous progress reports and fragmented communication between responsible parties.
Hemming-Metcalfe adds: “These issues are not technical challenges; they are structural inefficiencies. Until they are addressed, the backlog will continue to grow, no matter how much money is pledged.”
Despite the efforts of the Building Safety Regulator and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – both of which have committed substantial funding and oversight – the practical delivery of remediation remains dependent on outdated workflows and siloed processes.
Property Inspect is calling for three urgent system-level reforms to unblock the gridlock:
- Standardised, Digitised Evidence Packs: A mandatory national submission template should include structured photographic evidence, contractor certifications, inspection reports, and time-stamped metadata.
- A National Remediation Tracker: A public-facing, real-time dashboard for building status updates could reduce duplication, improve accountability, and eliminate data blind spots.
- Funding Linked to Compliance Standards and SLAs: Future funding should be tied to evidence of progress and documentation standards. Regulatory bodies should also enforce Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for both submissions and reviews.
- Industry analysts warn that unless these reforms are implemented swiftly, the UK’s cladding scandal risks becoming a permanent feature of the post-Grenfell housing landscape – an emblem not of resolve, but of institutional paralysis.
Hemming-Metcalfe warns: “Thousands of people remain stranded in homes they cannot sell or access. Remediation firms are stuck waiting for signoffs they cannot influence.
“The remediation crisis cannot be solved through policy alone; it must be delivered through operational reform.”
