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- Upgrade Secretary Michael Gove gives industry early March deadline for fully funded action plan
- Mr Gove warns industry that he will take all necessary steps to achieve this, including imposing a legal solution
- Government to announce new measures to protect tenants and restore common sense to building safety
Upgrading, Housing and Communities Secretary of State Michael Gove today (January 10, 2022) warned developers that they must pay to resolve the siding crisis they have caused as ” it revises the government’s approach to building security.
Mr Gove wrote to the industry today giving them an early March deadline to agree on a fully funded action plan, including the reclamation of hazardous coatings on buildings 11-18 meters , currently estimated at £ 4 billion.
He warns that he will take all necessary measures to make this happen, including restricting access to government funding and future public contracts, the use of planning powers and the prosecution of companies in court. He adds that if the industry does not take its responsibilities, the government will impose a legal solution if necessary.
Later today, the Secretary of State is also due to make an oral statement in the House of Commons announcing his intention to protect innocent tenants, who are trapped in unsaleable homes and face excessive bills to fix flaws. of the coating.
Mr. Gove will also unveil a set of measures aimed at restoring common sense in the industry and ending the situation of buildings declared unsafe when they are not.
In the letter, Secretary of State for Upgrades, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, said:
Our home should be a source of security and pride. For too many people living on properties your industry has built in recent years, their homes have become a source of misery. This must change.
Mr. Gove adds:
It is neither fair nor decent that innocent tenants, many of whom have worked hard and sacrificed to get a foot on the housing ladder, are shown off with bills they cannot afford to pay. problems they did not cause.
The government has accepted its share of responsibility and provided significant funds through its ACM sanitation program and the Building Safety Fund. Some developers have already done the right thing and funded corrective work and I commend them for these actions.
But too many others have not lived up to their responsibilities.
In the letter, the Secretary of State asks companies to commit to:
- make financial contributions to a dedicated fund to cover the full unpaid costs of repairing hazardous coatings on buildings 11-18 meters, currently estimated at £ 4bn
- finance and undertake all necessary sanitation works of buildings over 11 meters that they have played a role in the development
- provide complete information on all buildings over 11 meters that have historical safety defects and that they have played a role in construction over the past 30 years
The vast majority of 11-18 meter buildings are safe and others that have a combustible coating can also be or can be made safe through effective use of existing or new fire safety measures, such as sprinklers and sprinklers. alarms. There are, however, a small number of residential buildings with hazardous coatings that need to be addressed.
Mr Gove says developers need to move all necessary remediation work forward at a steady pace – prioritizing those that pose the greatest risk and in any case finding the fastest and most proportionate solution to secure them. buildings.
He calls on the industry to engage in an open and transparent dialogue with the government to hear their proposals, starting with a roundtable with the largest residential developers and commercial organizations. The government will invite tenants and those affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy to discuss solutions at the appropriate times to ensure discussions do not take place behind closed doors.
The government will announce a decision on which companies are eligible for funding contributions following discussions with industry, but expects it to cover all companies with equal or equal annual home construction profits. over £ 10million.
The statement follows the Secretary of State ordering the suspension of Rydon Homes, which are linked to a company responsible for renovating the Grenfell Tower, from the government’s Help to Buy program.
Mr Gove also condemned the Mercedes F1 team’s sponsorship deal with Kingspan, a company linked to the crisis.
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