Government release list of over 10,000 residential tower blocks

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have responded to a Freedom Of Information request from Tower Blocks UK, disclosing two substantial lists of residential buildings in England, over 18 metres in height.

One list shared by MHCLG comprises 4813 social residential buildings, the other comprises 5301 private residential buildings

In their written response to our request, MHCLG said:

‘The data represents the responses of local authorities and housing associations, after MHCLG requested preliminary information on all high-rise residential buildings to inform work on identifying buildings with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet current Building Regulations guidance. As such, these lists include buildings with and without ACM cladding systems. Please note that student accommodation and hotels are not included in these lists.

There is still ongoing work to improve the quality of this data, as it is likely that there will be some buildings missing from these lists. As such, these lists should not be regarded as being fully comprehensive.’

Though the governments lists are noticeably incomplete, by merging the information with data that Tower Blocks UK already hold, we can begin forming a comprehensive combined record of all such buildings.

In collaboration with our supportive partners, our next steps are to begin working through the MHCLG lists, undertaking further research on those individual blocks, identifying and categorising key features such as; form of construction, cladding or facade modifications, and other primary details.

Our eventual aim is to form a live database of all UK high rise residential blocks with accompanying information, such as fire risk assessments, cladding certificates and structural surveys.