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, 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. The industry has doubts about the accuracy of the £4 billion figure quoted for the repairs and believes the data will show a more accurate picture.
Basely writes: “UK home builders are being asked to ‘fully fund’ the fixing of a problem overwhelmingly caused by other actors and it thus seems reasonable to be given a better picture of the scale of buildings involved and who built them."
Baseley’s letter also calls for a “proportionate approach to building safety assessments”. Alongside his letter, a further missive has been sent from the HBF, the British Property Federation and the Housing Forum to DLUHC director-general Richard Goodman expressing industry concern about these assessments and the confusion in this area.
“The continuation of EWS1 processes alongside the more sensible PAS 9980 means that in terms of mortgage ability, the latest government guidance will still be overshadowed by the previous flawed guidelines and leaseholders will be in no better a position than they already were.”
Government support in this area is required, says Baseley. “Building assessors, surveyors and lenders are crucial to these discussions. For as long as they resist requests from government to fully implement…the ‘common sense’ guidance your department has now subscribed to, agreeing on broad terms and finalising scopes of works will be very challenging.”
Baseley notes that the Levelling Up Select Committee has echoed these concerns in its report, also published today. As well as also being concerned about the EWS1 forms, the committee also calls for widening of the net in terms of responsibility.
Clive Betts, chair of the committee, said: “The government should be looking beyond developers and manufacturers to contribute to the costs of fixing the building safety crisis. We recommend the government identify all relevant parties who played a role in this crisis, such as product suppliers, installers, contractors and subcontractors, and legally require them to pay towards fixing individual faults and ensure that they also contribute to collective funding for building safety remediation. Insurers should also be required to contribute to funds for remediation.”
