Cladding remediation has a way of taking over a housing team’s week. If you’re responsible for a council block with unsafe cladding, you’ll know the pattern: technical reports to interpret, and residents asking for answers you’re still waiting on yourself.
When you're dealing with a mixed tenure building, it makes things even harder. The tenant on the third floor wants to know when the scaffolding comes down. The leaseholder next door wants to know whether a bill is coming. The flat above is let privately, and the people living there haven’t heard anything at all. Downstairs, a shared owner is trying to work out which parts of their lease apply. Same building, very different conversations.
This guide is for the teams having those conversations. It covers what councils in England need to know about cladding remediation across a mixed tenure building, from funding and leaseholder costs to the new duties in the Remediation Bill.
Key Points:
Since June 2025, the Cladding Safety Scheme funds remediation on social rented, affordable rented and shared ownership homes on the same basis as leasehold units.
Leaseholders with a protected lease cannot be charged for cladding remediation. Councils are, however, exempt from the landlord net worth test that shields leaseholders from some non-cladding costs.
Section 20 consultation still applies to council leaseholders, alongside the communication milestones the CSS requires.
The Remediation Bill would place a legal duty on councils for their own stock, while also giving them a duty to enforce it locally.
Why mixed tenure makes council cladding remediation more complex
In a privately owned block, one responsible entity usually deals with leaseholders on broadly similar leases. Council blocks rarely work that way. A single building can bring together:
Secure tenants. The council holds full landlord responsibility. Tenants need clear, practical information about the works, access to their homes and the disruption to expect.
Right to Buy leaseholders. Their leases set out what they contribute through the service charge, and statutory consultation applies before major works.
Leaseholders who sublet. The leaseholder is the person you consult, but the people living in the flat are their tenants. Information has to reach both.
Shared owners, where present. They hold a further set of lease terms. Homes England expects registered providers to apply flexibilities for shared owners in properties needing works, including agreeing to subletting.
Each group needs a different conversation. Treating every resident as one audience tends to produce issues and even formal challenges. Both slow a programme down.
Funding: the Cladding Safety Scheme for social housing
The funding position for councils changed in 2025. The government announced over £1 billion of new investment to give social housing providers equal access to remediation funding. The Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) now funds cladding remediation on social rented, affordable rented and shared ownership units on the same basis as leasehold units.
For council housing teams, the practical points are as follows:
Councils apply as registered providers. The scheme asks local authorities for their registration number on the Regulator of Social Housing register.
A lease is not required for social sector buildings. The block must include at least one unit owned by a registered provider at a social rent, at no more than 80% of local market rent, or as shared ownership.
Contract dates matter. Buildings with a cladding works contract signed on or before 10 June 2025 do not receive the new funding retrospectively, and buildings remediated outside the CSS are not in scope for it.
Pre-tender support is mandatory for social sector applicants. It covers pre-tender activity such as design work and FRAEW costs, but not capital works.
Cost recovery runs in parallel. Since July 2025, social landlords can apply for funding while pursuing recovery from developers, insurers, contractors and others responsible for the defects. Homes England expects applicants to take reasonable steps to recover those costs.
The FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) must come from a firm on the CSS panel and follow the PAS 9980 methodology. If a block already has a FRAEW from a non-panel firm, check its standing early. Finding out at application stage costs months.
Councils are not starting from zero. Government data shows that, as of 30 September 2026, 57% of the social sector 11m+ buildings it monitors had started or completed remediation, compared with 53% of private buildings (MHCLG data release, September 2026). The remaining buildings are often the harder cases, and mixed tenure is frequently part of the reason.
Who pays? Leaseholder costs in council blocks
Cost is usually the first thing leaseholders will ask about. The answer depends on the type of defect and the type of lease.
Cladding remediation
Under Schedule 8 of the Building Safety Act 2022, leaseholders with a protected lease cannot be charged for cladding remediation. The Upper Tribunal has confirmed that this protection stands on its own, regardless of the age of the defect (Squire Patton Boggs). The CSS also funds in-scope costs that leaseholders would otherwise carry under their leases.
Non-cladding defects
Here the position for councils differs from private landlords. Local authorities and registered providers are exempt from the landlord net worth assessment, known as the contribution condition (Local Government Lawyer). That test stops wealthier private landlords from passing non-cladding costs to protected leaseholders. Protected leaseholders still benefit from statutory caps on what they can be charged. However, leaseholders without a protected lease have no cap (LEASE).
Consultation
The Building Safety Act changes how remediation costs are recovered, but the normal service charge rules on recoverability and consultation otherwise still apply. Section 20 remains part of the process for council leaseholders, and its 30-day stages need to sit within the programme from the start.
Before any service charge demand goes out, take legal advice on the lease position in each block. Mixed-tenure buildings often contain several lease versions, and the answer can differ flat by flat.
Keeping every resident informed
The CSS sets clear expectations on communication. Applicants must update leaseholders and residents at each scheme milestone, from the initial application through to completion of works, and upload copies of those communications to Homes England.
In a council block, those updates run alongside Section 20 notices and the council’s own tenant communications. Planning them as one schedule keeps the messages consistent. In practice, that means:
Telling secure tenants what the works mean for access to their homes and day-to-day disruption, without leasehold cost detail that doesn't apply to them.
Setting out the cost position and consultation stages clearly for leaseholders, with the protections that apply to them.
Asking leaseholders who sublet to pass information to their tenants, and providing material they can forward easily.
Giving every resident one named point of contact for questions throughout the works. This is something we can help with. For more information, get in touch with our team here.
Residents usually stay in occupation during remediation. The CSS expects applicants to minimise the impact of the works, for example through phasing, working hours, maintaining ventilation and light, and noise control. It also expects those carrying out the works to be part of the Considerate Constructors Scheme.
The Remediation Bill: councils on both sides of the duty
The Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill was introduced on 14 October 2026 and had its second reading on 27 October. Its Public Bill Committee stage is scheduled to conclude by 8 December 2026 (Construction Magazine). The details may still change, but the direction for councils is clear.
As a building owner
According to the government’s guide to the Bill, the legal duty to remediate would apply to private and social sector buildings in England over 11 metres or five storeys, completed before 28 June 2022. It falls on whoever holds the repairing obligation, which for council stock is the council itself. Responsible entities would need to assess their buildings within 12 months of Royal Assent and, where works are needed, publish a Remediation Compliance Plan within 15 months. That plan must be shared with residents and leaseholders, and its cost cannot be passed to protected leaseholders.
As a regulator
The Bill would also give local authorities, alongside fire and rescue authorities and the Building Safety Regulator, a duty to enforce the legal duty to remediate. Local authorities and fire and rescue authorities in the same area would need partnership working agreements setting out who leads on enforcement. Under the proposed Remediation Backstop, local authorities and Homes England could act as remediation authorities where an owner fails to act.
A council enforcing the duty against private owners will want its own stock to stand up to the same scrutiny. Getting council-owned blocks assessed and funded now puts the council in a stronger position on both fronts.
At Archway FM, we work with local authorities to manage cladding remediation from assessment through to EWS1 sign-off, fully funded through the Cladding Safety Scheme (England). If you’d like to talk through where your blocks stand, speak to our team.
A practical approach for council housing teams
Every block is different, but the councils that make steady progress tend to follow a similar sequence. You can hear more about how the remediation process works in practice in our episode of The Surveyor’s Lounge. But, here is a good approach if your team is just getting started:
Map tenure block by block. Record secure tenancies, leaseholds, sublet flats and shared ownership units, and review the lease versions in use.
Confirm the assessment position. Check whether each block has a current FRAEW from a CSS panel firm, following PAS 9980.
Check the funding route. Review contract dates against 10 June 2025, plan the CSS application and pre-tender support, and record cost recovery steps from the outset.
Build one communications plan. Align CSS milestone updates, Section 20 notices and tenant communications so residents hear one consistent account.
Bring in client-side support early. Remediation draws on capacity that housing teams rarely have spare. An experienced Client Representative can manage the application, design team, procurement and resident liaison, while the council keeps oversight.
How Archway FM supports councils with cladding remediation
Archway FM is a RICS-regulated cladding remediation consultancy. We act as Client Representative, managing the full remediation process on behalf of the responsible entity. That covers FRAEW support, CSS applications, the pre-tender support process, design team appointment, contractor due diligence, on-site management, financial drawdowns and resident liaison. Everything right through to EWS1 sign-off, with our company director being personally involved in every project.
For housing teams, that means one accountable partner managing the entire process while the council keeps control of decisions.
If your council is planning remediation on a mixed-tenure block, or wants a second view on where a building stands, speak to our team.