The government has recently reset its approach to building safety with a plan to protect leaseholders and make wealthy developers and companies pay to fix the cladding crisis.
Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove has announced that no leaseholder living in their own flat should have to pay a penny to fix unsafe cladding.
He has given industry given two months to agree to a financial contributions scheme to fund the new plan, otherwise, if necessary, the government will impose a solution in law.
Mr Gove has written to those in the industry giving them a deadline of early March to agree a fully funded plan of action including remediating unsafe cladding on 11m to 18m buildings, currently estimated to be £4 billion.
In the letter, the Secretary of State asks companies to agree to:
*Make financial contributions to a dedicated fund to cover the full outstanding cost to remediate unsafe cladding on 11m to 18m buildings, currently estimated to be £4 billion
*Fund and undertake all necessary remediation of buildings over 11m that they have played a role in developing
*Provide comprehensive information on all buildings over 11m which have historic safety defects and which they have played a part in constructing in the last 30 years
The vast majority of 11m to 18m buildings are safe and others that do have combustible cladding may also be safe or can be made safe through effective use of existing or new fire safety measures, such as sprinklers and alarms.
There are, however, a small number of residential buildings with unsafe cladding which must be addressed.
