Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the government established a Building Safety Programme to ensure that residents of high-rise and mid-rise residential buildings are safe, and feel safe from the risk of fire, now and in the future.

This Data Release provides estimates on:

1) The total number of mid-rise (between 11 metres and 18 metres in height) residential buildings in England

2) The proportion of mid-rise residential buildings that require remediation, partial remediation and mitigation to alleviate life-safety fire risks from external wall systems

3) The costs of funding the alleviation of life-safety fire risks of leasehold dwellings in mid-rise residential buildings, in England.

The estimates in this Data Release have been calculated using a sample survey of 2,856 mid-rise (11 – 18 metre) residential buildings in England. Ordnance Survey Address Base data was used to produce the sample, and in estimating the population of mid-rise residential buildings in England. DLUHC hired an expert contractor to complete desk-based surveys on the sample, to assess the probable life-safety fire risk of the external wall system on each building.

DLUHC and their contractor engaged with an independent expert advisory panel throughout this data collection who advised on the life-safety aspect of risk on mid-rise buildings and proportionate approaches to alleviate these risks. The contractor followed draft PAS 9980 guidance in assessing life-safety fire risks. The independent expert advisory panel have approved DLUHC’s and their contractor’s approach of estimating the prevalence of mid-rise residential buildings requiring work due to external wall systems that are a life-safety fire risk.

Because the estimates in this Data Release are based on a sample of the mid-rise building population in England, there is a degree of uncertainty around the estimates. The estimates in this Data Release are presented as a range, representing the lower and upper estimates calculated using confidence intervals at a 95% confidence level.