Housing Secretary Michael Gove has written to the Construction Products Association over its members failure to pledge to help fix the building safety crisis.
He said that a lack of commitment, as shown by developers, “is simply not good enough” and that the excuses given weren’t satisfactory.
Gove says that “leaseholders do not have the luxury of waiting years for every building to be assessed before funding is committed” and expresses his dismay over a lack of leadership in helping to bring “this unacceptable situation to an end”.
He adds: “The scale of this injustice should have spurred manufacturers into doing more, at speed, and it is disappointing that the sector appears instead to be using it as an excuse to do nothing, slowly.
“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. I will consider carefully how to use other powers at my disposal to make sure that there are significant commercial and reputational consequences for those firms that have not stepped up.”
You can read the full letter here.
Author: Charlie Maunder