Research and analysis

Social housing remediation data release: 31 December 2024

Published 20 March 2025

Applies to England

Main findings

• As at 31 December 2024, registered providers of social housing reported that they were responsible for 17,297 11+m buildings.
• Registered providers of social housing reported 2,592 11+m buildings with life-critical fire safety defects related to the external wall system (15% of all 11+m buildings).
• Of them, registered providers reported that 1,155 buildings have started or completed remediation (45% of 11+m buildings with life-critical fire safety defects related to the external wall system).

About the Fire Safety Remediation Survey

Data was collected from Registered Providers of social housing (RPs) via the Fire Safety Remediation Survey (the survey) for their 11m+ residential building stock in England. The survey required landlords to provide aggregate level information to Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) for all 11m+ residential buildings where they are the Responsible Entity, and landlords were asked to submit fire safety remediation data at a building level for assessment by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Local Authority Registered Providers (LARPs) were asked to complete the survey on a voluntary basis. The survey reflects data as at 31 December 2024.

553 registered providers of social housing were invited to respond to this round of the survey on their 11m+ stock. 941 small registered providers were excluded from this round of the survey because they had indicated that they were not the responsible entity for any 11m+ residential buildings. 541 registered providers responded to this round of the survey. Of them, 107 registered providers reported that they were not responsible for any 11m+ residential buildings, and 434 registered providers reported that they were responsible for at least 11m+ residential building.

This data release covers responses to the building-level questionnaire. The estimates in this data release may differ from those included in the Fire safety remediation in social housing in England data release, which is published by the Regulator for Social Housing and uses aggregate-level data rather than building-level data. This is due to discrepancies between the aggregate-level return and building-level return for a small number of registered providers.

Of 541 registered providers who were invited to respond to this round of the survey, 434 providers reported that they were responsible for at least one building that is 11m+. This release is based on the building-level data returns from these 434 providers as at 31 December 2024.

These 434 providers reported that they were responsible for a total of 17,297 residential buildings above 11 metres in height which contain at least one unit of social housing. Of those 434 providers:

• 199 providers reported responsibility for more than five 11m+ buildings. Further information on these providers’ buildings is provided available in the accompanying management information tables.
• 235 providers reported responsibility for five or fewer 11m+ buildings each. The data for these 235 providers is grouped into a single “Other RPs” row in the accompanying management information tables. The data for these providers is grouped in this way to avoid inadvertently identifying individual buildings with life-critical fire safety defects.

Summary / overview

This data release is split into four sections:

1. Progress with building works assessments and specialist assessments. This section shows the number of buildings in England over 11 metres which contain at least one unit of social housing, for which social housing providers who responded to the survey are the responsible entity. This section also also sets out the number and proportion of buildings that have had a recent building works assessment and/or a specialist assessment (such as a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Wall System, FRAEW). A breakdown by provider is available in the accompanying management information tables.

2. Buildings with External Wall System (EWS) defects. This section sets out the number and proportion of buildings that were found to require remedial works to mitigate life-critical fire safety defects related to the EWS, since June 2017 and at the time of the most recent building works assessment. A breakdown by provider is available in the accompanying management information tables.

3. Progress with remediation. This section shows the number and proportion of buildings requiring remedial works to mitigate life-critical fire safety defects related to the EWS. This section sets out the number and proportion of buildings with EWS defects, where remediation has been completed, has started, works are planned or plans are unclear. A breakdown by provider is available in the accompanying management information tables.

1. Progress with assessments

As of 31 December 2024, social housing providers reported that:

• 17,284 of the 17,297 buildings for which they are responsible (almost 100%) have had a recent building works assessment*.
• 13 buildings have not had a recent building works assessment.

Recent building works assessment?	Number	Percentage	Total
Yes	17,284	100%	17,284
No	13	0%	17,297

2. Buildings with life-critical fire safety EWS defects

Providers reported that 2,592 buildings (15% of 11+m buildings) have been found to have LCFS related to the EWS since June 2017. This includes buildings that were found to have LCFS related to the EWS only and buildings that were found to have both LCFS defects related to the EWS and non-EWS LCFS defects. Of 2,592 buildings with LCFS defects related to the EWS:

• 1,915 buildings had LCFS relating to the EWS (11% of 11+m buildings) at the time of their most recent building works assessment.
• 677 buildings were identified as having LCFS defects relating to the EWS which were remediated prior to their most recent building works assessment (4% of 11+m buildings).

*A building works assessment should comply with the requirements of the Fire Safety Order, for example a building works assessment or Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW).

This excludes 4 buildings identified with EWS defects which have been decanted prior to demolition.

3. Progress with remediation

2,592 buildings (15% of 11+m buildings) that were identified as having life-critical fire safety defects relating to the External Wall System (EWS) since June 2017. Of them:

• 800 (31%) completed remediation works. Of them, 677 buildings completed remediation works since June 2017 but prior to their most recent building works assessment, and 123 completed remediation prior to their most recent building works assessment** .
• 355 buildings (14%) have started remediation works.
• 960 buildings (37%) have not started remediation works but have plans in place.
• 477 buildings (18%) have not started remediation works and were reported to have no or unclear plans in place***.

**which could include buildings whose remediation work has been completed but is awaiting building control sign-off and those awaiting a post-works building works assessment to check whether any life-critical fire safety defects remain.

***This is either because works have not started and there are no plans in place, or the remediation status has been left blank in the survey.

Remediation status of buildings with EWS defects	Number	Percentage	Total
Works Complete - Prior to Recent Assessment	677	26%	2,592
Works Complete - Since to Recent Assessment	123	5%	2,592
Works Started	355	14%	2,592
Works Not Started - Plans in Place	960	37%	2,592
Works Not Started - No or Unclear Plans	477	18%	2,592