Speaking in the Houses of Parliament, Gove said: “It cannot be the case that economic conditions which affect us all are being used by developers or anyone else to shuffle off their obligations.
“Similarly, there are freeholders who have direct responsibility to the leaseholders in the buildings that they ultimately own to remediate those buildings. That is their legal obligation.”
He said that the government had passed laws to ensure that they filled that obligation. The Building Safety Bill was given royal assent and became law in April this year, which aimed to provide more guidelines on building safety and protection for leaseholders.
At the time, Gove said that building the safety journey “does not end here” and said the government would use new powers against those who did not take action on remediation.
Earlier this year, he also warned that building owners could face up to 10 years in prison if they continued to send leaseholders invoices for property remediation.
Gove continued: “There are some freeholders, organisations of significant means, that are trying to delay or dilute their responsibilities. This is simply not acceptable, and I hope that across this house we will make it clear that, yes these are tough economic times, but they are very tough economic times for the most vulnerable in our society.
“There is no way that PLCs and other organisations with healthy balance sheets and surpluses and CEOS who are earning handsome remunerations can somehow use global economic conditions as an excuse for shuffling off their responsibility.”
He concluded: “It just won’t do and all of us across this house will work to ensure that the work of remediation is done and there will be no hiding place for those responsible.”
Gove was reappointed as Secretary of State for Levelling Up by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the end of October. He had held the role between September last year and July this year but was fired by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson amid a wave of resignations.
His reappointment was cautiously welcomed by industry figures, who said he had a “reputation for getting things done”.
