The Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said it is close to finalising revised fire safety pledge contracts and expects housebuilders to sign them “very soon”.

A total of 48 developers signed housing secretary Michael Gove’s ‘developer pledge’ earlier this year, which commits them in principle to fixing ‘life-critical’ fire safety defects on their own blocks going back 30 years. Financial commitments from individual housebuilders under the pledge have totalled more than £2bn.

However, housebuilders refused to sign the initial detailed contracts in August due to concerns the wording would leave them having to pay for works beyond ‘life-critical’ defects. They were also concerned the text would allow DLUHC to reopen the settlement at a later date.