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Guidance Published 13 Mar 2024 Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ↗ View on GOV.UK

Building Safety Fund guidance for applications made in 2020

Information on the Building Safety Fund (BSF).

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Introduction

The government announced the Building Safety Fund (BSF) in March 2020 to fund the remediation of cladding on high-rise residential buildings (buildings over 18 metres).

This page is only for responsible entities – the individual/ organisation responsible for the safety of a building – who applied to the BSF in 2020. If you are making a new application, refer to the guidance for making new applications from July 2022.

The BSF is part of the government’s wider building safety programme which aims to ensure that residents living in medium- and high-rise buildings are (and feel) safe in their homes, now and in the future. The BSF meets the cost of addressing life-safety fire risks associated with cladding in high-rise residential buildings where the building owner or developer can’t afford do so.

If you are a leaseholder or resident of a building in the BSF, read our page containing Leaseholder and resident information on the Building Safety Fund. We have also published information on leaseholder protections more generally.

From March 2024, some groups of buildings have been transferred from the Building Safety Fund (BSF) to the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) to progress through all the stages of funding. Applicants have been notified where this transfer impacts their buildings.

Fund application guidance for private sector housing applicants

The below guidance is for responsible entities of private sector residential buildings who applied to the Building Safety Fund (BSF) in 2020. It provides information about the BSF, including how it works and what you can expect during the application process.

Building Safety Fund guidance for existing applications registered 2020 (PDF, 678 KB, 41 pages)

Guidance is subject to amendments.  Responsible entities should follow the BSF guidance that was in effect at the time they signed their grant funding agreement.

Responsible entities can appeal against the BSF’s eligibility decision for their building. MHCLG can only accept appeals from the person(s) who received the decision notification. They need to complete the below form.

Building Safety Fund: appeals form (ODT, 57.7 KB)

Fund application guidance and forms for social sector housing applicants

The below Building Safety Fund (BSF) guidance provides information about the application process for registered providers of social housing. It allows them to claim funding, equivalent to the value of work which would otherwise be charged to leaseholders.

Building Safety Fund guidance for social sector buildings registered from 2020 (PDF, 355 KB, 25 pages)

Guidance is subject to amendments. Registered providers of social housing should follow the BSF guidance that was in effect at the point when MHCLG granted funding approval.  Please see the original guidance (PDF, 831 KB)

They should also make a claim for each building, not bulk submissions per local authority or registered provider.

Registered Providers of social housing grant claim form (ODT, 28.9 KB)

All registered providers of social housing who apply to the BSF need to complete the SAP7B vendor form. This allows us to record them as a vendor on our systems and make payments. The vendor form can be sent to MHCLG at any time, however, it may take up to six weeks to verify bank details and enable payments.

Vendor Form SAP7B (ODT, 53.7 KB)

How we use the information applicants provide

The information applicants provide, excluding personal data, may be shared. However, information that is protected by legislation or is confidential will not be shared.

MHCLG shares information with leaseholders and residents about who to contact to obtain information on BSF-funded remediation of their building. This helps ensure that those responsible for fixing buildings communicate regularly with all residents on the progress of their BSF application and works. This communications requirement is set out in BSF guidance for applicants and in the Code of Practice for the Remediation of Residential Buildings.  

In 2023, we published the company names of responsible entities, managing agents and developers (where they are taking responsibility for the remediation of buildings) for each building on the Leaseholder and Resident Service.  

To facilitate mortgage lending, MHCLG shares basic address information (no personal data) about the following buildings with specific mortgage lenders:

  • buildings where BSF funding has been approved: high-rise buildings with non-Aluminium Composite Material (non-ACM) cladding systems.
  • buildings with other government funding in place to remove unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding systems.

These mortgage lenders must commit to using this information in a controlled way and for the specific purpose of informing lending decisions on flats in buildings impacted by external wall system defects. This will help prospective buyers to access mortgage finance and leaseholders to sell and re-mortgage.

Information on how many private and social sector buildings have applied to the Building Safety Fund and the use of enforcement powers against buildings with unsafe cladding systems can now be found on Building Safety Remediation.