Building safety remediation works have successfully concluded on The Works, a high-rise residential building in Manchester, ensuring a safe environment for all residents
The building, set in the centre of Manchester, was originally built in 2005 using a timber, zinc and brick cladding system that required remediation to make the building safe.
In May 2022, the owner was granted funding from the government’s Building Safety Fund to carry out the works, which included remediation to all elevations of the building.
Homes England worked closely with the applicant’s project team, administering the grant funding to enable the remediation works to be carried out.
Once work began, an extensive list of further design faults and original installation failures were identified. To resolve these unforeseen issues and make the building safe, an additional £2.8m grant funding was provided. In all, the project took 19 months from application to completion.
Steve Trueman, Director of the Building Safety Fund at Homes England, commented “It’s always satisfying to see a building made safe for its residents. We’ve now fully remediated over 50 buildings through the Building Safety Fund, and each time it reminds us of the importance of being able to feel safe in your own home. Our aim is always to ensure that residents not only feel safe, but are safe, both now and in the future."
The Works is just one of hundreds of unsafe buildings that are being remediated with support from the Building Safety Fund, with 53 completed projects and more than 80 projects currently underway. Once completed these projects will provide a safe home for the residents that live in these buildings.
Although the Building Safety Fund is now closed to new applications, Homes England is still able to help those affected by unsafe cladding through the Cladding Safety Scheme. The Cladding Safety Scheme provides funding to remedy or mitigate life safety fire risks associated with cladding on medium and high-rise buildings in England, where the responsible developer cannot be identified, traced or held responsible. You can find out more about the scheme here: Cladding Safety Scheme overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
If you live in or are aware of a building that you think may have unsafe cladding, but are not the person or organisation legally responsible for it, you can use Homes England’s ‘tell us’ tool’: Tell us about life-safety fire risks on the external wall system of your building - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)