The government has warned the building industry it must pay to fix the cladding crisis or face legal compulsion, freeing flat owners from the cost of removing unsafe cladding from their buildings.
In a letter to the industry, Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove asked developers to contribute to a dedicated fund to cover the costs of repairing unsafe cladding on buildings measuring 11-18 metres (m), estimated at around £4bn.
Following the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding was discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.
The government has already committed up to £5bn for the removal of dangerous cladding for buildings taller than 18.5m.
In his letter, Gove asked companies to “fund and undertake all necessary remediation of buildings over 11m that they have played a role in developing”.
The building industry has until early March to agree a fully funded plan to remediate unsafe cladding or the government may impose a solution in law, Gove said.
The Secretary of State is due later today to announce plans to protect leaseholders who are trapped in unsellable homes and face excessive bills to fix dangerous cladding defects.
People living in unsafe properties have been landed with bills of hundreds of thousands of pounds to remove combustible cladding.
"It is neither fair nor decent that innocent leaseholders, many of whom have worked hard and made sacrifices to get a foot on the housing ladder, should be landed with bills they cannot afford to fix problems they did not cause,” said Gove.
"Government has accepted its share of responsibility and made significant financial provision through its ACM remediation programme and the Building Safety Fund. Some developers have already done the right thing and funded remedial works and I commend them for those actions.
"But too many others have failed to live up to their responsibilities."
Gove says developers must take forward all necessary remediation work at pace - prioritising those with greatest risks first and in all cases finding the quickest and most proportionate solution to make buildings safe.