Builders in the UK have been given six weeks to sign a Government contract committing them to pay for upgrades of cladding in houses and apartment blocks deemed a fire risk, cabinet minister Michael Gove said.

Hundreds of thousands UK residents were found to be living in buildings that were deemed a fire risk following an investigation in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington, London in 2017.

A subsequent change in Government regulation has banned flammable building cladding, however this left leaseholders on the hook for upgrades and in many cases unable to sell their homes.

The new contract is to be today (Monday 30 January), Gove said in interviews with UK media on Sunday in a move to ensure more building companies pay for necessary repairs.

“Some have already indicated that they will,” he told Sky News. “If they don’t sign the contract, we’re making sure, in effect, that they won’t be able to build anything more in the future.”