Recommendation 9

The Department intends for the £1 billion Building Safety Fund for non-ACM cladding to be committed in full by the end of the 2020–21 financial year. The National Audit Office has suggested that this timetable would pose potentially significant challenges for the Department to address.29 It would certainly require an acceleration in administration compared to the existing fund for the replacement of ACM cladding in the private sector: the Department told us that in the months since that fund had opened at the start of January 2020, it had committed £33 million (of the total £200 million available).30 Regarding the private sector ACM fund, the Department has imposed stringent financial checks on 20 Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Advice for Building Owners of Multi-storey, Multi- occupied Residential Buildings, January 2020. 21 Q 28 22 HM Treasury, Budget 2020: Delivering on our promises to the British people, HC 121, March 2020, p 80. 23 Q 131 24 Q 81 25 Q 93 26 Qq 84, 125–6 27 Q 114 28 Qq 65–69 29 C&AG’s Report, para 2.21 30 Q 59 Progress in remediating dangerous cladding 11 applications, which it believes have been essential to safeguard public money and legality.31 Additionally, building owners have in practice required significant technical support.32 As a result, administration of the private sector ACM fund has been resource-intensive.33 The Department told us that one of the main lessons it had learnt from this ACM fund, and which gave it confidence it could commit the much bigger Building Safety Fund in full by the end of March next year, was the need to provide extensive support to applicants.34 This suggests the Building Safety Fund will also be resource-intensive to administer. Care homes