Government releases guide on the application process for the Building Safety Fund

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has released a short guide on the Building Safety Fund (BSF) which provides funding to address life safety fire risks associated with cladding in high-rise buildings (those over 18m) in England.

The guide is mainly for leaseholders and residents to help them navigate how the adapted 2022 BSF process works.

It focuses on the below seven stages:

• Application submitted
• Eligibility decision
• Legal checks and pre-tender support
• Costs assessment
• Funding agreement
• Works start
• Works complete

An application to the BSF can be made by the organisation that has the legal obligation or right to carry out remediation work on their building – these applicants may be the building’s:

• Freeholder
• Head leaseholder
• Resident Management Company (RMC)
• Right To Manage (RTM) company
• Social housing provider

Supportive evidence for the BSF includes a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Wall construction (FRAEW) and evidence of the height of the building.

The government has stressed that there is a separate guide for the 2020 process (buildings over 17.7m with cladding systems that meet the 2020 criteria), and that the process is different for social housing applications.

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