Michael Gove has conceded that government must take some responsibility for covering the costs of fixing combustible cladding, adding that the “taxpayer is the backstop”.
Speaking at a Commons select committee, the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities said: “The chancellor will probably shiver to hear me say it, but we have a responsibility here. But what we want to do is to make sure that with the taxpayer having already committed a significant amount, those who do have a direct stake in ownership do so.”
The comments are seemingly a step back from his previously stated ambition to make the construction industry and developers pay in isolation as he added that it was proving hard to hold all of the companies that manufactured combustible cladding materials to account.
He said: “Some of the most egregious transgressors are companies based outside the UK, so there are practical difficulties in pursuing them in the way that we would want to.”
The Home Builders Federation has told Gove it believes its members are only responsible for a small fraction of the £4bn he is seeking and have complained they are being targeted “because, as UK-headquartered businesses, it is a simpler proposition than pursuing overseas developers, influential property sector interests and foreign product manufacturers”.
