Bristol City Council has approved plans to fast-track the replacement of unsafe cladding in council high-rise blocks, after government moves to speed up the process of remediating buildings.

In an effort to hasten delivery, the local authority will now approach the removal of unsafe cladding as individual jobs, rather than something to be done alongside other planned improvement works, as is currently the case.

It will initially pilot the approach on five council high-rises, with plans to roll it out to all 21 blocks that require remediation.

If successful, the council said the move could see all unsafe cladding removed from the buildings by 2031.

It said the new approach would allow it to access expertise from specialist advisers and national companies using grant funding from social housing agency Homes England, while retaining control over decisions affecting its homes.

Barry Parsons, chair of the council’s Homes and Housing Delivery Committee, said: “Our residents’ safety and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to investing in the safety and quality of our council housing and this includes the replacement of dangerous cladding.

“While we are almost a quarter of the way through our programme of removing cladding from council-owned blocks, we recognise the urgency to accelerate this work further.

“This new approach ensures that we deliver a programme that is cost-effective and makes good use of the resources available to us. 

“We will continue to work with local and national partners to address the barriers to removing unsafe cladding and addressing other safety issues quickly – ensuring that all our residents live in safe buildings, as quickly as possible.”

As part of the government’s plan for the removal of unsafe cladding, all schemes are required to be completed, or have a date for completion, by 2030.

The council’s previous policy on remediation had been a “whole block” approach that tackled cladding alongside other building refurbishment works, such as glazing or roofing.

“As a result, the projects have taken longer to complete and have not been successful for government funding,” the council said.

“It is recognised that the existing approach would not enable the council to meet the government’s deadline.”

The local authority has appointed Turner & Townsend, funded by Homes England, to support the new approach to cladding replacement.