Gove unable to guarantee Affordable Homes Programme safe from cladding raid
Michael Gove said he could not offer a “cast iron” guarantee that the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) funding would remain untouched in the event that targeted developers do not pay for cladding remediation.
Housing secretary Michael Gove said he could not offer a “cast iron” guarantee that the AHP would remain untouched (picture: Parliament TV)
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The housing secretary was questioned by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee on his plans to force developers deemed responsible for the fire safety crisis to pay into a £4bn fund to remove cladding from all buildings over 11 metres tall.
When asked by committee chair Clive Betts whether AHP funding would be the fallback if money cannot be raised from the industry to pay for these works, Mr Gove said: “We will do everything we can to protect it.”
He added: “I have learnt that you can never give a cast iron guarantee. You can only commit to best endeavours. If, for any reason, I have to resile from that, I will come and let the committee know.”
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The minister would also not be drawn on whether social renters will be protected from increasing rent or service charges levied by social landlords to make up the difference between projected government grant for cladding and extra building safety costs that are not covered.
Mr Gove said: “Overall, we are keen to make sure that RSLs – I do not want to criticise them because they do an amazing job – are better held to account in the way in which they serve their tenants.
“Some of the steps that we are proposing to take in legislation will mean that, if you have RSLs that have been less than fair in how they allocate their resources with respect to their tenants, that can be identified and action taken.”
Mr Betts replied: “It does not really deal with this problem, though, does it?”
“No, I take your point,” the housing secretary said.
Mr Gove also questioned the validity of the social housing sector’s claim that one in 10 affordable homes will be lost if it is expected to stump up the costs to cover cladding removal and other building safety work.
He said: “We just want to understand the figures. I am not saying that I think that that is totally wrong, but nor would I say that it is an accurate assessment.
“It is understandable. Were I the chief executive or the chair of an RSL, I would want to make sure that the government were aware of what I considered to be a reasonable worst-case scenario.
“We have a responsibility to interrogate that… I think it is one of those cases where we need to kick the tyres to assess exactly what the impact will be.”
Mr Gove confirmed that his department had a roundtable with sector leaders and said: “I think that they understand that it is the department’s view, and it is perfectly possible to disagree with it, that safety comes first and supply second.”
Mr Gove also updated the committee with latest figures on buildings with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding still attached. He said that, as of 31 January 2022, there are 481 buildings altogether, and 160 are high-rise residential buildings that are in the hands of registered social landlords.
When it comes to non-ACM-clad buildings, there are 222 social sector buildings that have applied to the Building Safety Fund.
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