Major developers are refusing to sign legally binding contracts to fix unsafe cladding.
The row comes three months after Michael Gove secured the backing of dozens of major developers for the pledge, which is expected to raise £2bn in contributions.
In a leaked letter sent to the Department for Levelling Up, the Home Builders Federation warned ministers that contracts issued in July are “impossible to sign” in their “current format” and go “well beyond” the pledges they agreed to earlier this year.
Neil Jefferson, managing director at the Home Builders Federation, said the trade body had “significant concerns about the creeping scope, liability, and administration that is implied by the draft [contract]”.
He also said the mid-August deadline, imposed by levelling up secretary Greg Clark, for developers to sign the documents was “unrealistic”.
The contract formalises the pledge that developers agreed with Gove, Clark’s predecessor. It commits them to assess and where necessary fix tower blocks they have built over the past 30 years.
While insisting developers remained committed to the promise that leaseholders should not have to pay for remediation work, Jefferson said: “I fear the four months of unnecessary delay caused by the drafting process for this document and the disconnect between the pledge and the contract will, at the very least, delay the remediation of buildings.”
Clark said that while developers had been given time to provide “reasonable observations”, he was not prepared to water down the fundamental requirements and they would be expected to sign the contracts within a matter of weeks. “It is high time the developers’ pledges are turned into action,” he added.
A senior government source highlighted that ministers had taken powers to freeze developers out of the planning system and housing funds if they refused. “No developer is indispensable,” the source said.
