Persimmon announced on Tuesday that it had signed the UK government’s developer pledge, following discussions with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
The pledge reportedly sets out the housing sector’s commitments to removing cladding and fixing fire safety issues in any building over 11 metres, and follows Persimmon’s earlier pledge in 2021 to protect its leaseholders from the costs of replacing cladding and making the necessary amendments to remove fire hazards linked to a selection of its properties.
According to Persimmon, the pledge commits its signees to address fire-safety concerns on all buildings 11 metres or over developed by the company 30 years before 5 April 2022, and to not claim any financial assistance from the government’s Building Safety Fund.
The building firm added that it believed the £75 million provision laid out for rectification works will remain sufficient to cover the necessary expenses covered under the Pledge.
Persimmon said that out of the 33 properties identified for remediation work, it has currently achieved EWS1 certificates for four of them.
“Over a year ago we said that leaseholders in multi-storey buildings Persimmon constructed should not have to pay for the remediation of cladding and fire related issues,” said Persimmon CEO Dean Finch.
“We are pleased to reaffirm this commitment today and sign the Government’s Developer Pledge.”
“We made this commitment last year as we believed it was not only fair for leaseholders but also the right thing to do as one of the country’s leading homebuilders.”
“We are pleased that we were able to work constructively with the Government to secure this agreement.”
Persimmon shares remained flat at 2,209.5p in late afternoon trading on Tuesday after the report.
