HBF calls on Gove to publish building safety data

Housebuilders have called on the government to publish all available data on the number of buildings of all heights with historic building safety defects, whether these be cladding related or not.

The call comes as the HBF has again written to housing secretary Michael Gove reiterating the need for a fair solution to the building safety crisis, a solution in which all parties contribute, not just developers.

Last month the industry had written to Gove with an offer to move forward, including resolving fire safety issues on all its buildings above 11m without recourse to the Building Safety Fund. But Gove called on the industry to go further.

HBF executive chairman Stewart Baseley, in a letter sent to Gove today, says that the industry has “strong reservations” about committing to an open-ended commitment for housebuilders to fund repairs on 11m+ buildings as such a solution would leave many responsible parties “out of scope”. He again called for all “polluting” parties to be part of the solution.

In the meantime, the industry is calling for the publication of data that the government has gathered from the industry to assess the amount and cost of remediation on 11m to 18m buildings. …