Cladding fund for under 11m buildings opens 17 August

On 9 July 2026 MHCLG and Homes England published new funding for removing unsafe cladding from multi-occupied residential buildings under 11 metres in England. It runs through the existing Cladding Safety Scheme, it is tenure neutral so private and social blocks both qualify, and applications open on Monday 17 August 2026 for an eight week window (GOV.UK).

Three details decide who gets anything. Only the responsible entity can apply. No application can be submitted without a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls. And for high risk buildings, position in the pipeline is set by the date and time the application is stamped.

What this means for your building

The queue is a timestamp, not a deadline. GOV.UK is direct: valid applications “will be progressed in the order they are received” and “the date and time of submission will determine their position in the funding pipeline”. No pre-registration, no early access, and “meeting the fund requirements does not create any entitlement to funding”. Note too that GOV.UK publishes no closing date, only the end of the eight week window. Adviser bulletins are circulating 9 October 2026. That date is not in the guidance, and eight weeks from 17 August is in fact 12 October. Confirm it on the Building Remediation Hub rather than planning back from it.

No FRAEW, no application, and probably not just any FRAEW. The appraisal must follow PAS 9980:2022 and use the summary template Homes England supplies. Then the trap. The parent scheme guidance says Homes England only accepts FRAEWs from a firm on its own panel, a rule in force since 1 November 2023, and that you instruct the appraisal from that panel after the initial application stage (GOV.UK). The under 11m guidance says you cannot submit without one. Those do not line up. Confirm the sequence before you commission anything.

The fund pays for life safety risk in the cladding, and nothing else. It will not cover redecoration, general maintenance, window replacement, repair costs or insurance premiums, nor FRAEW recommendations aimed at Building Regulations compliance, general defects or an improved EWS rating. So the appraisal that unlocks the grant also hands you a list of things you now demonstrably know about and are paying for yourself, usually compartmentation, cavity barriers and fire stopping, fire doors and detection.

Your fire risk assessment already has to cover the external walls. GOV.UK states it plainly: every multi-occupied residential building with two or more sets of domestic premises now needs its assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to include the external walls. That follows the Fire Safety Act 2021, which brought the structure, external walls, cladding, balconies, windows and flat entrance doors into scope at any height. Often a competent assessor handles it inside the routine fire risk assessment.

PAS 9980 judges the wall against everything else you have. It is not a pass or fail verdict on a panel. The appraisal weighs external fire spread against the building’s use, occupancy, means of escape, evacuation strategy, detection and the reliability of compartmentation, then asks whether the risk is tolerable without remediation. Your internal fire protection feeds that answer. Two identical blocks, one with sound compartmentation and a maintained alarm with dated evidence, the other with none of it findable, are not the same risk case. That is the part almost nobody prepares, and it is entirely within your control before 17 August.

Not being funded does not move the duty. If the money runs out or the building ranks below the line, the Fire Safety Order duty is exactly where it was, and government supports councils and fire services in using enforcement powers against cladding fire risks. See the 2026 enforcement guidance and a prosecution where missing paperwork drew a larger fine than broken equipment.

What to check before 17 August

• Confirm who the responsible entity legally is. The party responsible for external repair: freeholder or head leaseholder, a registered provider, a management company whether commercial or resident run, a section 24 manager, or a right to manage company. Only they can accept the grant.
• Check the Developer Remediation Contract signatory list. Homes England will not fund a building where the developer signed it and built or refurbished the block in the 30 years to 4 April 2022. Those buildings go to the developer. You will also be asked whether you have pursued insurance, developer contributions or warranties first.
• Open your fire risk assessment and find the external wall section. If it is missing, that is a Fire Safety Order gap today, not just a funding problem. We offer a free second opinion.
• Do not commission a FRAEW until you have confirmed the panel requirement for this route.
• Assemble the internal evidence the appraisal leans on: compartmentation and fire barrier surveys with breaches shown closed and dated, fire door inspections, alarm servicing with defects closed rather than merely listed, and AOV smoke extract records.
• Plan for the interim. Where remediation is programmed and a waking watch is running, a common fire alarm system is the usual route off it, Homes England’s Interim Measures Alarm Fund exists for that, and Gemini is an approved IMAF supplier.
• Tell your leaseholders. They cannot apply, but they can report the building to Homes England through the Tell us Tool, which then comes back to you.

How Gemini helps

To be clear about scope: we are not on the Homes England panel of external wall assessors and do not carry out PAS 9980:2022 appraisals. Our fire risk assessments are written to PAS 79-1 and PAS 79-2.

What we do is the work either side of the cladding, including the non-cladding remediation this fund will not pay for: fire risk assessments, compartmentation, fire stopping, fire barriers, fire door inspection and remedials, alarm service and maintenance to BS 5839-1:2025 under our BAFE SP203-1 registration, alarm remedial works and evacuation alert systems to BS 8629. For residential and social housing and residential developments, that is one contractor and one set of records with defect closures dated.

If a FRAEW is coming and you do not know what your internal fire protection records would show an assessor, call 0330 043 0080.

Sources: Buildings under 11 metres: fund overview, GOV.UK, 9 July 2026, Buildings under 11 metres: leaseholders’ and residents' guide, GOV.UK, Cladding Safety Scheme overview, GOV.UK and PAS 9980:2022, BSI. If anything here is inaccurate or out of date, contact us on 0330 043 0080 and we will correct it.