Ministers set to amend law to stop developers from building unless they pay into remediation fund
政府公布了一项计划，该计划将赋予其威胁的法律效力，即阻止开发商建设，除非他们支付覆层修复费用。
It follows a reported letter from the chief executive of housebuilder Persimmon to the Department For Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) calling the sanctions “unlawful”.
据悉，该公司就住房大臣迈克尔•戈夫(Michael Gove)对建筑商提出的警告征求了QC的法律意见。戈夫对11米至18米之间的中层建筑进行维修，估计要花费40亿英镑。
Last week Redrow chief executive Matthew Pratt became the first to do so, branding Gove’s threats “unrealistic” and “inequitable”.
Pratt said: “I don’t think anyone can sign a deal that says ‘you will give me anything I want’. Which basically [is saying that at] the end of the year ‘we’ll tell you how much it [the cost] is and you’ll sign up to say you’ll give us it.’ Nobody can sign up to that, it’s unrealistic.”
But Gove has doubled down on the threats this week, saying in a statement from DLUHC that those not willing to play their part in ending the building safety crisis “must face consequences”.
The secretary of state announced plans to amend the Building Safety Bill to allow the government to block planning permission and building control sign-off for schemes for “those in the industry not doing the right thing”.
The new law would effectively prevent developers who refuse to pay into the fire safety repair fund from building and selling new homes.
The government will also be able to apply its new building safety levy - a tax on developers of high-rise residential buildings - to more developments, with scope for higher rates for those who “do not participate in finding a workable solution”.
Gove said: “It is time to bring this scandal to an end, protect leaseholders and see the industry work together to deliver a solution.
“These measures will stop building owners passing all costs on to leaseholders and make sure any repairs are proportionate and necessary for their safety.
“所有行业都必须发挥作用，而不是继续盈利，而努力工作的家庭在挣扎。
“We cannot allow those who do not take building safety seriously to build homes in the future, and for those not willing to play their part they must face consequences.
“We will take action to keep homes safe and to protect existing leaseholders from paying the price for bad development.”
DLUHC表示，新条款将使戈夫上月在下议院做出的一项承诺成为法律，即居住在自己家中的承租人，或转租超过1100米的建筑物的人，“永远不会为拆除危险的覆层支付一分钱”。
And the department said the provisions announced today will go further than last month’s pledges by protecting leaseholders from non-cladding costs.
然而，该公司承认，在伦敦和英国其他地方，承租人仍可能需要支付高达1.5万英镑的租金。
The capped bill would be footed by leaseholders in the “small number of cases” where owners of buildings above 11m do not have the resources to pay, with any costs already paid out by leaseholders over the past five years counting towards the cap.
The department said the plan would encourage a “more proportionate approach” to fixing buildings compared to current practice which allows building owners to pass on all costs to leaseholders.
该法律还将允许对根据建筑产品法规被成功起诉的产品制造商下达成本分摊命令。
DLUHC said product firms would be required to “pay their fair share” on buildings requiring remediation, adding: “It is wrong that, until now, a manufacturer could be found guilty of misconduct but could not be charged to fix the problems they caused in selling defective products.”
Gove’s threats followed his decision last month to protect leaseholders entirely from the costs of repairing unsafe cladding on homes now deemed to be at risk.
But housebuilders dispute the £4bn price tag, and say that other developers, contractors, designers, subcontractors, insurers and government should all share the cost.
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