Housing secretary Michael Gove has written to cladding and insulation manufacturers, calling on them to pay towards remediating unsafe buildings.
The news came as the government announced that over 35 of the UK’s biggest housebuilders have joined a building safety pledge. Under the terms of the deal, developers will fix all buildings of 11m or more in height where they had involvement in its construction over the past 30 years. The deal will be made legally enforcecable.
The industry will contribute an estimated £2bn to the remediation of buildings. And the government will commit another £3bn through an expansion of the Building Safety Levy.
Cladding and insulation firms criticised
But the government criticised the response of cladding and insulation manufacturers. It claimed they “are yet to accept their share of responsibility and come forward with a proposal”.
As a result, Gove has written to the Construction Products Association (CPA) and warned he will “do whatever it takes to hold cladding and insulation manufacturers to account”.
‘Negotiations have concluded’
In the letter, Gove said: “Unlike the approach taken by developers, manufacturers have failed to make any such commitment. This is simply not good enough.”
And he added: “It is unacceptable that there has been no clear acknowledgement that actions taken by cladding and insulation manufacturers have contributed to the problem, and that manufacturers have individually and collectively failed to come forward with a proposal for playing their part in addressing it. As such, I now consider our negotiations to have concluded.
“I have instructed my officials to do whatever it takes to make sure that construction product manufacturers are held to account through the powers that I am establishing in the Building Safety Bill. My new recovery unit will pursue firms that have failed to do the right thing, including through the courts."
