Fitzgerald House's application to the Building Safety Fund has been approved for full works and costs. The Applicant is working with their delivery partner (Greater London Authority) to provide the information required for the Fundings Approvals Board to confirm eligibility of the cost variation.

The owner of any residential building should make sure that their building is safe in line with legal requirements. Remediation or mitigation works should be appropriate and proportionate. Low-rise buildings like Fleming House are less likely than high-rise buildings to require costly remediation to make them safe and it follows that risk assessments based on PAS 9980 principles in low-rise buildings are more likely to find that lower-cost mitigation is more appropriate and proportionate than higher-cost remediation.

The Department is therefore examining cases that have been brought to our attention in which it is proposed to carry out costly remediation works in buildings which are under 11 metres in height, with a view to challenging those who insist on transferring those costs to leaseholders if appropriate. We are aware of the Fleming House case and others like it, and will take it into account in deciding how to proceed.

Fitzgerald House has applied to the Building Safety Fund and has been awarded pre tender support funding to support the applicant to undertake the design, specification and tendering required to start the remediation of the unsafe cladding on the building. Fitzgerald House has applied to the Building Safety Fund and has been awarded pre tender support funding to support the applicant to undertake the design, specification and tendering required to start the remediation of the unsafe cladding on the building. The Department expects to award further funding for the project once the applicant submits a full application which meets fund requirements.

The application period for the Waking Watch Replacement Fund closed on 28 March 2022. The fund is designed to cover the costs of installing a common fire alarm system to replace Waking Watch measures where the costs of the Waking Watch are being passed onto leaseholders. We understand that a Waking Watch was installed at Fitzgerald House on 5 May. My officials have spoken to the managing agents for the building who inform us that they are taking steps to mitigate the risk in the building. The steps being taken will remove the need for a Waking Watch without recourse to a common fire alarm system.