Gove blasts ‘cowboy’ developers and paves way for regulation and reform

Michael Gove has lambasted cowboy developers and called for justice in the cladding scandal. Answering questions from the housing committee in parliament on 8 November, the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities said companies must take responsibility for the Grenfell Tower tragedy. He said: “There is an urgent need to deal with the persistence of [aluminium composite material] cladding on tall buildings. But I also think there is an equally urgent need to ensure that justice is done.” Gove said the department needs to make buildings safe and address the “disproportionate” costs passed to leaseholders “when there are individuals in business who are guilty men and women”. He said: “It would seem to me that developers and product manufacturers, if they say they are squeaky clean, they are wrong.” He added that developers may have prioritised cost-cutting over safety, the public sector failed to take the right steps in assessing building compliance, and the department had “not necessarily appreciated the importance of fire safety”. Gove said: “The sheriffs might not have been on the ball, but the cowboys were behaving like cowboys in an unregulated way.” Gove said he wants to prevent “rip-offs” in the system and explore the “polluter pays approach”. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities is working on the Building Safety Bill, and aims to withdraw the controversial guidance preventing owners from selling homes before Christmas. “Held to account” The department will also publish a levelling up white paper this year. Gove said: “We anticipate setting out some particular missions by which the government can be judged, and some metrics by which we and others can be held to account.” Gove listed three immediate priorities: to create a set of levelling up missions; to improve housing supply and quality; and to strengthen local leadership. As part of this, he will also seek to rebalance Homes England’s 80:20 rule, which sees the bulk of finance dedicated to areas of greater affordability pressure where land values are higher. “One of the things that I’ve been discussing with Homes England is how we can invest in proper urban regeneration outside London and the South East,” said Gove. “If you redress the 80:20 rule, if you make sure that there are real reasons why economic regeneration is occurring across the rest of the country, then you relieve areas that have felt particularly under pressure in terms of housing numbers.” Gove said factors including materials costs and a reduced labour market challenge the government’s target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. He said: “I’m not retreating from the desire to have 300,000 new homes as soon as we can. The key things we’ve been discussing are where, and of what tenure… We absolutely do want to hit that target, but we also want to take into account beauty, the environment, quality, decency, local democratic control and infrastructure as well.” Over the past year, suggested changes to the standard methodology for assessing future housing need saw targets dramatically increase in cities. These were dropped following backbench protest. Gove said he still wants to reform this. “One of the things I want to do is just look at how the numbers are generated in the first place, because I think some of the assumptions are probably out of date.” Reform agenda Gove said he is committed to upcoming reform and new legislation in planning, leasehold and the private rented sector. Under former housing secretary Robert Jenrick, the department backtracked on several immediate changes to planning, and it is expected that controversial zoning measures will be watered down in the Planning Bill this year. Gove said: “We won’t be abandoning it. There are some things that I think everyone agrees are sensible.” He pointed to digitisation as an example. Gove said local planning authorities should be working to the December 2023 deadline to complete their local plans, and this will still be a part of the reform. But he agreed that the government must support them: “I think there is a legitimate concern on the part of local government that the resources haven’t always been there to help. And that’s why I think some of the changes that we can make, not just in order to provide the resource but also to simplify the process, are important.” Gove said planning reform should address community resistance to new development by improving quality, infrastructure requirements and environmental impacts on the surrounding area. With regard to existing stock he said the biggest problems in terms of quality are in the private rented sector. “There will be more detail shortly about the legislation that we aim to bring forward in this area,” he added. “One of the things that I want to do is to make sure that we take the right approach towards the private rented sector.” He said the department has been discussing “what we can do in order to better regulate the private rented sector, while at the same time obviously not disincentivising people from providing decent homes at a fair rent to those who need them”. To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@eg.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @EGPropertyNews Photo © Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock