Gove gives industry March deadline on cladding plan

Housing secretary Michael Gove will today call on the residential property industry to work with government to agree a fully funded plan to fix the cladding crisis including remediating unsafe cladding on 11-18m buildings which is estimated to cost £4 billion.

In a statement to the Commons today, and in a letter sent to the industry, Gove will give the industry a “window of opportunity” to agree a settlement and produce the plan with a deadline of early March. He says that he is prepared to take “all steps necessary” to make this happen “including restricting access to government funding and future procurements, the use of planning powers, the pursuit of companies through the courts and…the imposition of a solution in law if needs be.”

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 11-18m 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 …