The parent company of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment contractor Rydon has signed the government’s building safety remediation contract – half a year after the deadline given by the housing secretary.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities removed Rydon Group Holdings Ltd this morning from the list of developers who have not yet signed the contract. Only Abbey Developments remains on that list.
Rydon has also joined the Responsible Actors Scheme requiring residential developers to pay for building safety remediation work.
The government wrote to housebuilders and mixed-use developers on 30 January asking them to sign a new developer remediation contract by 13 March.
Under this legally binding document, companies will commit £2bn or more for repairs to buildings they developed or refurbished over the past 30 years.
In addition to the Building Safety Levy, this means they will pay an estimated £5bn to make their buildings safe.
The contract also requires them to reimburse the taxpayer where government funds have already paid for remediation, with that money being used to make other buildings safe faster.
Signatories are required to fix all life-critical fire-safety defects in all buildings in England over 11 metres they had a role in developing or refurbishing.
‘Only responsible developers welcomed’
Eleven developers failed to sign the remediation contractor by the six-week deadline provided by DLUHC, prompting Michael Gove to name and shame them in parliament.
“To those developers that have failed to sign the contract without good reason, let me be very clear – we are coming after you,” said Gove in the House of Commons in March.
“If you do not sign, you will not be able to operate freely in the housing market. Your investors will see that your business model is broken – only responsible developers are welcome here.”
However, days after the list of developers was published, London Square, Telford Homes, Ballymore and Inland Homes confirmed they had signed the contract, followed by Galliard Homes and Emerson Developments in April and Dandara Living in June.
Until today, only Rydon and Abbey Developments remained on the list of developers that had not signed the remediation contract.
