Property developers told to commit to £2bn UK repair scheme

The UK government has given property developers six weeks to sign up to a £2bn repair scheme aimed at protecting thousands of tenants in England in the wake of the Grenfell Tower blaze.

Developers have received contracts, drawn up by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, that will commit them to pay to repair unsafe buildings, a statement said on Monday. Companies that failed to sign the documents by the deadline would face “significant consequences”, the statement said.

The protection for tenants was first proposed in 2019 but Michael Gove, minister for levelling up, said in November it would not be in place until this year. The housing secretary admitted then that the government should have “moved more quickly” to protect tenants after the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.

Under the contract, developers collectively will commit an estimated £2bn or more for repairs to buildings they developed or refurbished over the past 30 years. It applies to buildings over 11 metres high. This meant that, together with a building safety levy, the industry was paying an estimated £5bn to make buildings safe, the statement said.

The commitment from builders and developers would save tenants from costly repairs for “serious safety defects”, including non-cladding related issues, the statement said. The contract also demands developers reimburse taxpayers where public money has been used to fix unsafe buildings.

The move comes after an inquest last year into the death of Awaab Ishak found that the two-year-old died from a severe respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his home.

Ishak’s parents told the inquest that they had raised concerns with their landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, multiple times but were ignored.

Housing campaigners have drawn parallels between Ishak’s case and the Grenfell blaze, in which 72 people died. Residents in the west London tower block had raised safety concerns before the fire.