Calls mount for cladding firms to pay fair share

Calls are mounting for sanctions or a levy on cladding and insulation manufacturers who have so far failed to pay into fire safety funding schemes. The building supply firms Saint-Gobain and Kingspan have reported more than £7.5bn in global profits since the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017. The Construction Products Association in the UK, of which the two firms are members, has failed to agree with the government a voluntary funding scheme to strip buildings in England of combustible products. In January last year, levelling up secretary Michael Gove said he would not let building material firms that were making huge profits “off the hook”. A year later, no scheme has been agreed. Lisa Nandy, the shadow housing secretary, said the government’s failure to hold the manufacturers to account was “not just an unhelpful omission but an immoral one”. The Guardian