Cladding Repair Bill is 180% Higher Than The Average Leaseholder Salary

- London is the worst city for cladding issues in the UK

- The average cost of remediation work is estimated at £42,000 per dwelling

- 91 weeks’ wages are needed on average to cover the costs

New research and data analysis from A1 cladding system manufacturer Valcan has unveiled a number of troubling findings around the costs and severity of the current UK cladding crisis.”

One of the most notable discoveries was that the typical cladding repair bill is an estimated £42,000 per property. This works out at a whopping 180% more than the average leaseholder salary. In addition, the Index’s salary data shows that the repair costs would be the same as 91 weeks of wages per person, on average.

Valcan calculated its Index by using official UK government data to determine the number of properties with dangerous cladding. This was done by taking an average of the maximum and minimum estimates for the number of buildings with ACM cladding systems yet to be remediated. The average salary data for each affected area was then collected from the ONS and converted to monthly, weekly and annual wages for leaseholders.

While there has been the announcement of up to £5bn of investment by the government to ‘pay for the removal of unsafe cladding for all leaseholders in high-rise buildings’ - meaning the repair bills won’t be completely footed by the property owners - the Index’s data suggests this figure may not be enough to cover the total expenses.

On a city-wide level, London was revealed by the Index to be the worst location for cladding issues. This is because a number of the capital’s local authorities have featured in the top 10 list for the estimated number of buildings with ACM cladding that has yet to be remediated.

The complete top 10 rankings were as follows:

Tower Hamlets - 20+ buildings
Salford - 15.5 buildings
Westminster - 15.5 buildings
Wandsworth - 15.5 buildings
Brent - 15.5 buildings
Newham -15.5 buildings
Southwark - 8 buildings
Manchester - 8 buildings
City of London - 3 buildings
Elmbridge - 3 buildings

The Index’s full data list of the nation’s local authorities has also painted quite a damning picture of just how widespread the cladding issues are in the UK, particularly in major cities. Affected properties can be found as far south as Brighton and Hove to Leeds, Liverpool and Bradford in the north.

Alan Lamming, director of Valcan commented: “The data is clearly very shocking and although the government recently announced a £5bn investment to foot the bill for cladding that needs remediating, it is clear this is not enough and many leaseholders will be left to pay large sums of money that they simply cannot afford.

The building regulations (Approved Document B) were very ambiguous prior to 2017 and in my view, therefore were largely responsible for the combustible materials being used. Therefore, we believe that the government should pay the bill for this on ‘relevant’ buildings (i.e. buildings such as hospitals, flats, student accommodation, schools with dormitories etc, above 18m high) using the BSF, which should be increased.”

Whether or not the government’s funding proves sufficient to rectify the situation remains to be seen, but if it isn’t, many leaseholders will find themself in challenging financial circumstances based on the index’s data. On top of this, many of these homeowners will now face a doubly anxious wait to both find out if this repair work is something they may have to pay for and when it will actually be carried out.

For more information on this study and to see the full index, visit - https://valcan.co.uk/cladding-repair-crisis/