The Building Envelope

The latest Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) survey highlights significant progress in tackling unsafe cladding across the social housing sector, yet more than a quarter of buildings identified with life-critical external wall defects still have remediation plans that are incomplete or unclear. The challenge now is not identifying the problem but moving projects from uncertainty to delivery.

Eight years after Grenfell, the direction of travel on social housing remediation is clear. Across the sector, landlords, consultants, contractors and manufacturers have worked together to make substantial progress. The latest figures from the RSH published on 24 September 2026, demonstrate that momentum.

With solar PV installations continuing to accelerate, Kevin Taylor, Training and Technical Support Manager 
at Marley, says that tenant safety is the key factor for every social housing solar PV project.

How OCL Reclad and its trusted supplier – Valcan, combined specialist delivery and product expertise to improve facade fire performance while preserving the character of an occupied residential building, in the heart of London.

For housing providers, a recladding project brings responsibilities that reach well beyond the external walls. Residents need to continue living in their homes, existing defects may only become apparent once work starts, and replacement materials must suit the building as well as the brief. At Inglewood Mews, these challenges made collaboration between OCL Reclad, Valcan and the wider project team central to delivery and project success.

Rapierstar, the UK’s leading supplier of specialist fasteners for windows and doors, is playing an increasingly important role in the social housing fenestration supply chain through its consultancy approach to product selection, application and new product development.

The company provides an extensive portfolio of fasteners to window and door manufacturers across the UK and Ireland, supported by continuous product testing and development, assuring performance and quality are backed by meaningful technical data.

With the latest Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) guidance placing greater focus on Falls Between Levels, now is the time for housing providers to review their opening window safety measures and assess what the updated guidance means, and is having a restrictor fitted adequate.

The HHSRS provides a useful reminder that housing safety is about identifying and managing risk, rather than simply ticking off products or features. HHSRS covers 21 potential hazards, including Falls Between Levels: falls from one level to another, such as through a window where guarding or edge protection is too low or defective.

With hotter summers, high energy costs and the Future Homes Standard (FHS) on the horizon, the way homes are designed to balance energy efficiency, resilience and occupant wellbeing is coming under increasing scrutiny. In the first episode of its new Beyond the Board podcast series, MEDITE SMARTPLY brings together industry experts to examine one of the most fundamental elements of building design: the building envelope, and asks: “Is the secret to healthier, ultra-efficient homes hidden in the building envelope

“Did I make a mistake? Did I mess up this old building?”

These are the questions architect Níall Hedderman posed on his Youtube channel, Real Life Architecture, about an internal wall insulation specification for one of his projects. His search for answers led him on a journey through retrofit best practice to learning more about an insulation material that he describes as “supernatural” in terms of its performance properties.

It led to Níall and Proctor Group working together to explain how aerogel insulation can help to improve the energy efficiency of traditional buildings without covering up historic features, or taking up too much internal space.