UK housebuilders will be given 18 months to start fixing dangerous cladding on blocks of flats under government proposals following the damning report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has proposed a five-point plan it hopes to agree with big developers to tackle the slow progress on fixing fire safety issues in their buildings, according to a document seen by the FT.
Housebuilding bosses are due to meet deputy prime minister Angela Rayner later this month to finalise the plans, which could mean a financial hit for companies that have not yet set aside enough money to fix the problems.
In the wake of last month’s report into the 2017 Grenfell disaster, when dangerous cladding caused fire to spread up the west London tower block killing 72 people, Downing Street said it was considering criminal sanctions against businesses that fail to replace unsafe cladding.
Rayner said she was “astonished” how many companies had not yet started the work and pledged to speed it up.