Builders have complained move is ‘disproportionate’
Housing association trade bodies have backed housing secretary Michael Gove’s controversial plans to force housebuilders to pay into a fund for fire safety works.
Both the G15 – which represents large housing associations in London – and the National Housing Federation (NHF) welcomed proposed amendments to the Building Safety Bill last week that are designed to stop developers from operating if they don’t pay into the proposed £4bn fund.
The move has been criticised as “disproportionate“ by the Home Builders Federation, which is taking legal advice.
Geeta Nanda, chair of the G15 and chief executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley said: “Responsibility for this crisis must sit with the constructors and product manufacturers that failed to build homes correctly, which the government has made clear in these amendments.”
Housing associations will not be required to pay into the £4bn pot and they will be able to access funding from it.
Nanda added that G15 members have already spent £3.6bn on building safety work over 15 years and £450m since 2019. She added: “This is already having an impact on our ability to build much needed new affordable homes and to invest in existing residents’ homes.”
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the NHF, said housing associations were “spending billions” remediating social housing stock, which was diverting money away from new development and existing homes.
She added: “We support measures to make those who are responsible for building safety defects and profited from them – developers and manufacturers – pay to make buildings safe.”
The government this week tabled far-reaching amendments to the Building Safety Bill as it stepped up its efforts to ensure housebuilders pay up.
The amendments would give the government the power to prevent companies building out schemes, including schemes with existing planning permission, for any purpose connected with “securing the safety of people in or about buildings” or “improving the standard of buildings”. It would also allow the government to prevent companies applying for or receiving building control.
On Monday, Gove told a committee of MPs that getting non-UK based housebuilders and products firms to pay up for the government’s £4bn cladding remediation fund will be “practically difficult”.
He said ministers may not be able to allocate the cost of building safety works to offshore companies “precisely and with total authority”.
At-a-glance: the new Building Safety Bill amendments
The amendments, if voted through, will give the government power to:
- Prevent companies or individuals from building out schemes, including schemes with existing planning permission, “for any purpose” connected with “securing the safety of people in or about buildings” or “improving the standard of buildings”
- Prevent companies or individuals from applying for or receiving building control approval, again “for any purpose” connected with “securing the safety of people in or about buildings” or “improving the standard of buildings”
- Expand the mooted building safety levy – currently targeted only at buildings of more than 18m in height – to all buildings containing “one or more dwellings”
- Trace the ultimate developer of properties developed via shell companies, in order that leaseholders can secure contributions for fire safety repair costs
- Make developers primarily liable for fire safety repair costs, with building freeholders liable where developers cannot be traced, and with recourse only then to leaseholders, whose costs will be capped at £15k in London and £10k elsewhere
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