Building Safety

John Redwood Excerpts

Monday 30th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to the hon. Member. The statement refers specifically to action in England, but we have been working with the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to see what can be done to make buildings safe in those jurisdictions. On his point about remediation work, a number of companies in the private sector across the United Kingdom are contributing to this work and I have already raised with the chairman and chief executive of Homes England the importance of ensuring that they are paid for their work in a timely fashion. I will investigate further to make sure that progress is being made, particularly in the areas of insurance that the hon. Member mentions.

[John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)]

What actions will the Government take to make it more likely that people will set up new construction companies and grow smaller companies, since we clearly need more capacity and more competition to get high-quality work done?

[Michael Gove]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right, and many of the provisions in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill are designed explicitly to aid the entry of new small and medium-sized enterprises into the construction sector. Many of those provisions follow on from the excellent work of my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr Bacon), who as a champion of self and custom builders has done more than anyone else in this House to help to ensure diversification in housing supply.