Housebuilder in plea to halt new fire safety levy

Buildings tax plan ‘unjust’, Barratt says

BOSSES AT housebuilder Barratt have urged the Government to rethink plans to expand a levy to finance fire safety repairs.

The FTSE 100 firm, along with other UK housing firms, has signed up to the Government’s building safety pledge and committed to solving historic fire safety issues in the aftermath of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.

The move amounted to £2bn worth of commitments, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said last month.

In April, the department also revealed plans to extend the levy to tax all new residential building in England, in a move which would raise a further £3bn to fix safety issues where developers were not identified or able to resolve issues.

However, Barratt has now urged the Government to “reconsider” this.

“In our view, this is unjust and disproportionate, further punishing UK housebuilders who were not responsible for most of the historical buildings or building safety issues being addressed and fails to effectively allocate the cost of remediation to those responsible,” the company said.

It came as Barratt hailed “strong” demand in the current housing market and reported strengthening forward sales.

The company reported total

forward sales of £4.38bn on May 1, compared with £3.69bn at the same point last year.

Barratt added that it is on track to complete between 18,000 and 18,250 homes, including 750 through joint ventures, putting it in line with previous expectations. David Thomas, chief executive of the company, said: “We are seeing strong demand across the country for our high quality, energy efficient homes and our excellent operational teams are working hard to meet this demand.

“We expect to deliver fullyear trading results in line with the board’s expectations as we remain focused on growing towards our medium-term target of 20,000 homes a year, delivering high-quality sustainable developments the country needs, creating jobs and supporting the economy across England, Scotland and Wales.”

Shares in the business rose by 1.6 per cent to 492.4p in early trading on Thursday.

It comes weeks after housebuilders suffered a fall on the London Stock Exchange.

Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey all saw their shares drop significantly at the beginning of April.

Housebuilders had been in the news as one by one they signed up to the Government’s fire safety pledge set up after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Many have also revealed extra costs that they expect to see.

Bellway, Countryside and Vistry became the latest to book in the costs and sign up to the pledge.

In March Housebuilder Bellway has notched up higher half-year profits but revealed a further bill for high-rise fire safety works.

Housebuilders were not responsible for most of the historical buildings. A spokesperson for Barratt, the housebuilder.