On 9 July 2026, the government confirmed that the Cladding Safety Scheme is being extended to residential buildings under 11 metres in England, where a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls has identified a serious fire safety risk. Until now, funding has focused almost entirely on taller buildings, leaving many smaller blocks with no route to support even where a genuine risk exists. Applications open on 17 August 2026 and close eight weeks later, around 9 October 2026. For a borough with as much lower-rise and converted housing stock as Croydon, this is worth knowing about now rather than finding out about it once the window has closed.
What the Cladding Safety Scheme covers
The Cladding Safety Scheme is run by Homes England and has, until this extension, been aimed at buildings 11 metres and over, where unsafe cladding is a widely documented problem. Buildings under that height have generally had to fund remediation themselves, regardless of the risk found on site, simply because of where the height threshold sat.
The extension changes that, but only for a specific group of buildings. To qualify, a building needs a completed Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls, carried out to the PAS 9980 methodology, showing a life-critical fire safety risk. The government has been clear that most buildings under 11 metres are not expected to have this level of risk, so this is a targeted fund rather than a blanket offer, and meeting the basic requirements does not guarantee funding. Applications are assessed and prioritised according to risk, with the highest-risk buildings considered first.
Why this matters across Croydon specifically
Croydon has one of the more varied housing stocks of any London borough, and that variety is exactly why this extension is worth paying attention to here. The modern apartment towers around East Croydon are mostly well above the 11 metre threshold already, and many will already sit within the existing higher-rise schemes. It is the rest of the borough where the new funding is likely to matter most: the converted Victorian and Edwardian blocks common across South Croydon and Sanderstead, the mixed residential and commercial developments around West Croydon and Purley Way, and the low-rise blocks and estates spread across Purley, Shirley, Kenley, Thornton Heath, Crystal Palace, Upper Norwood, Norbury and Streatham. These are the buildings that fell outside every previous scheme purely on height, whatever the condition of their external walls.
London as a whole already accounts for over half of all buildings currently being tracked under the existing height-based remediation schemes, so there is no shortage of remediation activity happening across the capital. It is reasonable to expect a similar level of interest now that smaller buildings finally have somewhere to apply.
How to check if your building could qualify
The first and most important question is whether your building already has a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls. If it does, and it identifies a life-critical risk, you are in a position to prepare an application as soon as the window opens. If it does not, this is the moment to commission one, since a proper FRAEW takes time to arrange and complete, and applications will not be assessed before 17 August regardless of when they are submitted.
A few things are worth knowing before you start:
Applications go through the Homes England portal during the eight-week window. Previous correspondence with Homes England or the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not count as an application, so a fresh submission is needed even if you have raised the issue with them before. You will likely be asked whether other routes, such as an insurance claim, developer contribution or warranty, have already been explored, so it is worth having that information ready. Funding is not automatic. Homes England reviews and audits every FRAEW submitted, using the same process as the existing scheme, to confirm the proposed remediation is necessary and proportionate.
What to do next if you are a resident director or freeholder
If you sit on the board of an RMC or RTM company, or you are a freeholder responsible for one of these buildings, the practical next steps are straightforward. Check what fire safety documentation already exists for your building. If there is no FRAEW, get one commissioned without delay. Pull together your building’s maintenance and fire safety records now rather than scrambling for them in October. And if a managing agent is already involved, this is a good moment to ask them directly whether your building looks like a candidate for this fund.
How we can help
We manage residential blocks across Croydon from our office on Lansdowne Road, and we work with RMC and RTM boards throughout the borough, from the developments around East and West Croydon to the smaller blocks in Thornton Heath, Crystal Palace, Upper Norwood, Norbury and Streatham. As a RICS regulated firm and members of the Institute of Residential Property Management, we are used to working through funding schemes like this one on behalf of the boards and freeholders we act for, and we are already looking at which of our buildings are worth assessing before the window opens.
If you manage or sit on the board of a building under 11 metres in or around Croydon and are not sure where it stands, get in touch with our Croydon team now. With only eight weeks once the window opens, the buildings that are ready to apply on day one will be in the strongest position, and we would rather help you get there in August than talk about missed deadlines in October. You can also find out more about how we support block management across Croydon on our site.
This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. Wishtower accepts no responsibility for any reliance placed on it.
