Negotiations are over, Gove tells cladding manufacturers
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said he will do “whatever it takes” to make the manufacturers of dangerous cladding pay to fix the problem.
In a public letter to Peter Caplehorn, the chief executive of the Construction Products Association, Gove noted that “manufacturers have failed to make any such commitment” to fix the issues, “unlike the approach taken by developers”.
So far 36 developers have signed the levelling up secretary’s building safety pledge, committing more than £2bn to remediation works. But manufacturers have said that making such commitments would take “years of preparatory work”.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said he will do “whatever it takes” to make the manufacturers of dangerous cladding pay to fix the problem.
In a public letter to Peter Caplehorn, the chief executive of the Construction Products Association, Gove noted that “manufacturers have failed to make any such commitment” to fix the issues, “unlike the approach taken by developers”.
So far 36 developers have signed the levelling up secretary’s building safety pledge, committing more than £2bn to remediation works. But manufacturers have said that making such commitments would take “years of preparatory work”.
“This is simply not good enough,” Gove wrote. “The scale of this injustice should have spurred manufacturers into doing more, at speed, and it is disappointing that the sector appears instead to be using it as an excuse to do nothing, slowly.”
His letter continued: “It is unacceptable that there has been no clear acknowledgement that actions taken by cladding and insulation manufacturers have contributed to the problem, and that manufacturers have individually and collectively failed to come forward with a proposal for playing their part in addressing it.
“As such, I now consider our negotiations to have concluded. I have instructed my officials to do whatever it takes to make sure that construction product manufacturers are held to account through the powers that I am establishing in the Building Safety Bill.”
Gove told the CPA that the new recovery unit “will pursue firms that have failed to do the right thing, including through the courts”.
He added that he will “consider carefully how to use other powers at my disposal” to make sure that there are “significant commercial and reputational consequences for those firms that have not stepped up”.
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