Two weeks ago housing secretary Michael Gove shocked the development industry by calling for housebuilders to cough up £4bn to pay to the repair of medium rising housing affected by the post Grenfell Tower fire safety crisis.

Gove received praise for ditching the previous policy, designed by his forerunner Robert Jenrick, under which flat owners of buildings of between 11-18m in height were to be required to take out loans to pay for the cost of repairs. At the same time he said some developers had “sought to profiteer from the consequences of the Grenfell tragedy”, and that the government was “coming for you”.

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