Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
17th Report - The Remediation of Dangerous Cladding
Published 21 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee The Remediation of Dangerous Cladding All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Home Builders Federation told us that it was concerned that a shortage of “Chartered Fire Engineers” was a barrier to speeding up developer self– remediation. MHCLG assured us that it did not currently see a shortfall of fire engineers, and that it had access to additional capacity that that could be used if needed, observing that some of its offer was currently underutilised. MHCLG said it had offered this capacity to developers to get buildings assessed quickly, but the HBF told us that only a third of assessors on the government’s panel were the most experienced, well– qualified engineers of the calibre its members chose to use.30 Since we took 27 HM Treasury, Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixteenth report from Session 2019-21, CP 316, November 2020, page 14 28 Qq 18-19, 42 29 Qq 3, 20; RDC0099, Written evidence submitted by the National Fire Chiefs Council; RDC0145, Written evidence submitted by End Our Cladding Scandal 30 Q5, 15, 42; RDC0006, Written evidence submitted by the Home Builders Federation, 4 February 2025 15 evidence, the Government, in its response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, has announced its intention to bring in mandatory competence requirements for fire risk assessors.31
From: Public Accounts Committee, 17th Report - The Remediation of Dangerous Cladding (HC 362), 21 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Seventeenth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Seventeenth report from Session 2024-25
Published 16 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations on the remediation of dangerous cladding, with target dates between summer and December 2025, but disagrees with the recommendation on construction manufacturers paying a share of remediation costs.
- On the Remediation Acceleration Plan, the government agrees to update the Committee in Autumn 2025. It says it "has not seen significant evidence that non-cladding defects are slowing down remediation" but is committed to removing blockers.
- On construction manufacturers paying a share of remediation costs, the government disagrees. It says it is consulting on redress routes in the Construction Products Reform Green Paper and that leaseholders and tenants are protected from the cost of cladding remediation.
- The government will publish latest building number estimates "by the summer", but the timing of cost and completion date estimates "will depend on the outcome of the forthcoming Spending Review".
- On insurance, the government agrees and will share an update on progress by the end of 2025. It is gathering data on premiums and is considering whether government "might support industry to reduce fire related liabilities".