Government needs to ‘look again’ at personal evacuation plans for disabled people, Gove says

The MP for Surrey Heath, who was brought back as housing secretary three months after being sacked by Boris Johnson, also used his return to the despatch box to reiterate his stance on the building safety crisis.

Leaving building owners in no doubt, Mr Gove warned that there would be “no hiding place” for those trying to use economic conditions as an excuse to shirk responsibility to fix unsafe buildings.

Mr Gove criticised the indication from developers that the “weight of obligation” should be lessened because of global economic headwinds and attempts by freeholders “of significant means” to delay or dilute their responsibilities.

He added: “These are tough economic times, but they are very tough economic times for the most vulnerable in our society, and there is no way that PLCs and other organisations with healthy balance sheets and surpluses, and CEOs who are earning handsome remuneration, can somehow use global economic conditions as an excuse for shuffling off their responsibility. That just will not do.”

During his time as housing secretary, Mr Gove was able to break the impasse on the building safety crisis when he struck an agreement with the developers that would see them fix fire safety defects on many of the buildings that they constructed.

He also brought in a number of amendments to the Building Safety Bill, which would put in place legislation to protect leaseholders from eye-watering fire safety remediation bills.

Introducing the Social Housing Bill debate, Mr Gove said that 13% of social rented homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard, and that the new legislation will attempt to improve on this through greater regulation.

At the heart of the bill, which is now in its second reading, is a plan to broaden the remit of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) to allow it to be more proactive on consumer matters such as disrepair and safety.

However, there are also a number of reforms in place to try to get landlords to listen to their tenants and encourage greater transparency by landlords.

During the Commons debate, shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said that Labour “strongly supports” the bill and that it could be strengthened by putting tenants at the heart of a proposed advisory panel.

The MP for Wigan also called for the bill to focus on strengthening the professionalisation of standards in the social housing workforce, and urged the government to give the regulator the “resources necessary to do the job”.

Ms Nandy criticised the bill’s slow progress, considering it was an area with “clear political consensus”.

She added: “It has been five years since Grenfell, four years since the green paper, and three years since promises were made in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto. How can it possibly be the case that we are approaching the end of 2022 and we still do not know when the measures in the bill will come into force?”

A Government spokesperson said: “This Government is committed to delivering proposals that enhance the safety of residents whose ability to self-evacuate in an emergency may be compromised.

“We have clearly expressed that mandating Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans in high-rise residential buildings presents substantial difficulties, especially around practicality, proportionality and safety. That’s why we held the public consultation on Emergency Evacuation Information Sharing Plus - our alternative package of measures that seek to enhance fire safety for the most vulnerable residents. We are now analysing the responses to that consultation.”