Inland Homes signs the cladding contract

Housebuilder and land promoter Inland Homes has signed the government’s cladding contract, after missing the government’s deadline two weeks ago. 

The Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities confirmed on Friday that the troubled AIM-listed firm had legally committed to fixing tower block safety defects. 

Inland Homes, which announced last week it will have to suspend shares and delay its annual results for a second time because of  “related party issues”, released a statement saying it had signed the “self remediation contract on behalf of the group and all of its subsidiary companies”.

The government then said it had “transferred Inland Homes PLC from the list of developers who have yet to sign the contract to the list of developers who have signed the contract”.

Inland Homes was one of 11 developers who did not commit to the government contract two weeks ago and housing secretary Michael Gove in the House of Commons the next day threatened to effectively put out of business. 

It joins Telford Homes, London Square and Ballymore in signing the contract, leaving seven companies still remaining to sign. The government published details on Friday of the Responsible Actors Scheme, which it will use to punish those firms that don’t sign up by banning them from carrying out major planning permissions or receiving building control sign off.

The Emerson Group, of which Jones Homes is the residential subsidiary, said last week it would sign the “imminently”. 

The contract takes over last April’s cladding pledge and legally commits developers to remediating blocks over 11m high in which they have had any involvement over the past 30 years, either through building or refurbishing. 

Inland Homes has also announced today that it has exchanged conditional contracts with housing association Eastleigh Community Homes for 31 affordable properties. The homes are being built over the coming months then social housing provider will pay £6.54m in cash on completion.

The sale is part of Inland’s Templar Green development in Essex where it has planning permission to build more than 70 homes. 

Nish Malde, Inland’s group finance director, said: “We are delighted to be working with Eastlight on this exciting project to deliver much needed high quality affordable homes to the local community.”