Gove has written to investors in Kingspan, Arconic, and Saint-Gobain. He has urged them to use their “position of influence” to help gain a commitment to fund the post Grenfell residential block building safety programme.
Major shareholders Blackrock, Vanguard and Fidelity Management, as well as central bank of Norway, have received letters.
As well as warning the consequences for manufacturers he also highlighted likely consequences for shareholders’ reputations, in addition to their financial stake, if he is forced to use “the legal and commercial tools available”.
Gove said: “I have always been clear that those responsible for the building safety crisis must pay. But despite the fact that their products continue to put lives at risk, some cladding firms have no intention of doing what’s right and addressing their moral and financial obligations to innocent residents.
“Today we ask responsible investors to use their influence to encourage these companies to come forward immediately with a comprehensive financial package for remediation work.
“It cannot be right that cladding companies continue to profit whilst so many innocent, hardworking people face financial hardship and misery.
“To those cladding companies who fail to do the right thing: you will face severe consequences and I will use all commercial and legal tools available to me to ensure you take responsibility.”
Efforts to make cladding companies pay are proceeding in tandem with measures used by the Department to ensure developers and freeholders contribute to remediation costs of unsafe buildings.
As of today, there are 46 signatories on the landmark Developer Remediation Contract, which for the first time in law commits developers to fixing all life-critical fire-safety defects in English buildings over 11m they had a role in developing or refurbishing.
Further to this, the Department’s Recovery Strategy Unit has ramped up litigation against freeholders who will not remediate buildings they are responsible for, including recently against GreyGR, owned by billion-pound railway pension fund RailPen.
