Cladding and fire safety

Overview

• Since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017, we have set aside significant funding of £333 million to remediate our buildings. 
• We have a dedicated team fully focused on completing works to a high quality as quickly as possible.
• We are signatories of the Government’s Developer Remediation Contracts for England and Wales. 
• We are using chartered fire engineers and technical building experts to help us assessed those buildings we are responsible for under the terms of the developer contract.

In the years since the Grenfell Tower fire, there have been multiple updates to Government guidance on fire safety, and the number of buildings identified requiring remediation works has grown across the UK. This has seen the scope expand to include apartment buildings between 11m and 18 metres in height as well as those with forms of cladding beyond ACM.

Since the start of 2022 and into 2023, discussions were held with the UK and Welsh Governments to address building fire safety concerns across all blocks with a firefighting height above 11 metres. As a result of these discussions,  Taylor Wimpey entered into the Government’s Developer Remediation Contracts, and extended our funding commitment to cover external wall and life-critical fire safety defects in Taylor Wimpey apartment buildings across England and Wales with a firefighting height above 11m and constructed in the 30 years prior to 5th April 2022.

As a signatory of the UK Government’s Developer Remediation Contract, we have also committed to reimburse any funds allocated or used for Taylor Wimpey buildings over 18 metres from the Building Safety Fund, being the fund that the sector already contributes to via the Residential Property Developer Tax. Taylor Wimpey has allocated £333 million to undertake these works.  In Scotland we took swift action and were the first developer in Scotland to begin remediation on affected buildings, at our historic development in Glasgow Harbour,  we continue to engage with the Scottish Government, seeking a swift resolution to the regulatory framework that will address fire safety in legacy apartment buildings to allow the assessment of buildings and any remediation if necessary to commence. 

More detail on Taylor Wimpey fire safety funding

Where a building falls into scope of the Government’s Developer Remediation Contracts, we will ensure that the building is assessed using a combination of a Fire Risk Assessment of External Walls (FRAEW) for the external fabric of the building, and a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) internally.

Where these assessments indicate that the building does not meet a tolerable standard, we will engage with your buildings Responsible Entity (depending on the leases, this could be the Freeholder, Management Company, Managing Agent, or a combination) to enable Taylor Wimpey to undertake remedial works to address these issues at no cost to leaseholders. 

Where identified issues fall outside of the scope of our responsibility under the Government’s contracts, for items such as lack of maintenance or damage, we will make your Responsible Entity aware so they can work to resolve them.

At the end of any necessary works, we will provide your Responsible Entity with a new FRAEW showing a tolerable rating, which can be provided to leaseholders to aid sales and mortgage applications. If any leaseholder experiences difficulties in accessing mortgages due to a fire safety assessment, Taylor Wimpey can provide support in the form of a Letter of Comfort in respect of any necessary works, which can be provided to lenders to support a mortgage application.