The new housing secretary has ruled out a U-turn on his predecessor Michael Gove’s plan to raise a new £3bn planning levy on the industry to pay for fire safety remediation works.

Greg Clark said there will be no “backsliding on the £3 billion building safety levy”, announced to outrage from the housebuilding sector in April, but that he nevertheless wanted to create a “productive partnership between housebuilders, the government, local councils and housing associations.”. The proposed £3bn levy would fund works on ‘orphaned’ buildings – those where the owner cannot be traced or contacted – above 11 metres in height.