好色先生TV

Michael Gove has admitted that getting non-UK based housebuilders and products firms to pay up for the government鈥檚 拢4bn cladding remediation fund will be 鈥減ractically difficult鈥�.

The housing secretary said that ministers may not be able to allocate the cost of building safety works to offshore companies 鈥減recisely and with total authority鈥�.

He told a committee of MPs yesterday: 鈥淪ome of the most egregious transgressors are companies that are based outside of the UK, so there are  some practical difficulties in pursuing them in the way that we would want to.鈥�

His comments come a week after the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) unveiled plans to give legal force to its threats to stop developers from building unless they make significant financial contributions to end the building safety crisis.

Gove wants to amend the 好色先生TV Safety Bill to allow the government to block planning permission and building control sign-off for schemes being built by developers and housebuilders who refuse to pay up.

But the Home Builders鈥� Federation (HBF) has estimated that more than half of the blocks above 11m built in the UK in recent years have been built by offshore housebuilders through shell companies.

Asked by the cross-party DLUHC select committee how these firms would be forced to pay, Gove admitted that the measures being proposed to target UK-based developers would be less effective on those who are 鈥渙perating at one, two or three removes鈥�.

He said that the government had 鈥渓evers we can use to try to pierce the corporate veil鈥� of offshore firms.

He did not reveal what these levers were as he did not want to 鈥渟how too much of our hand鈥�.

See also>> Explainer: Gove鈥檚 threats to shut down housebuilders over building safety

But the minister admitted that UK-based companies are 鈥渆asier to engage with and easier to be clear about what the consequences of non-engagement might be鈥�.

The HBF has said that that it should not just be UK developers who have to shoulder the burden of the costs.

Gove called the comments 鈥渇air鈥�, adding: 鈥淚f we can鈥檛 necessarily allocate precisely and with total authority all of the burden to some players who are hiding behind offshore or other vehicles, [then] what we can do is have a collective approach.鈥�

He was also asked if the government would consider taking the 好色先生TV Research Establishment (BRE), a product testing firm which was privatised in 1997, back into public ownership following evidence heard at the Grenfell Inquiry.

Gove, who described the evidence as 鈥渄eeply concerning鈥�, said he could not make a commitment that the BRE would be nationalised but said he was 鈥渙pen minded about what the best way is to fixing the regime鈥�.

In the last two weeks, the inquiry into the 2017 fire which killed 72 heard that the BRE had failed to warn the construction industry about the dangers of unsafe cladding despite repeated warnings.

There are currently nearly 500 buildings in the UK which contain combustible ACM cladding, the type blamed for the spread of flame at Grenfell.

The total cost for repairs to buildings deemed unsafe is estimated to be up to 拢15bn.