As yesterday’s Government deadline to commit to funding essential recladding work passed it emerged that around 53 firms have committed to signing up to Government’s Building Safety pledge.

Three of the volume house builders have now costed out the commitment to fund retrofit works on unsafe buildings over 11m in height.

Taylor Wimpey said it expects to pay out £245m rectifying buildings, Crest Nicholson yesterday said it was prepared for a total bill of around £168m while Redrow put the expected cost at £200m.

Britain’s biggest house builder Barratt has still to declare the final cost of remediation works, but two months ago said the provision on legacy buildings could be over £220m.

The industry’s pledge to carry out work on existing buildings is in addition to the Residential Property Developer Tax of 4% of pre-tax profit which came into effect on 1 April.

The decision to commit to the Government’s demand that house builders foot all remedial costs comes after months of negotiations between Whitehall officials and the Home Builders Federation.

The industry’s pledge covers all buildings constructed by house builders since 1992.

Levelling up minister Michael Gove gave house builders until 5 April to sign up to his building safety commitment threatening them with commercial and financial consequences if they failed to fix historical fire safety problems on buildings.

Gove warned this could include blocking planning or even a ban on trading.

A DLUHC spokesperson said: “Since January we have been clear in our expectations of developers, including an agreement to remediate buildings they have had a role in developing and to contribute to a wider fund to fix unsafe cladding.

“Our position has not changed. We welcome the developers who have signed pledges so far and we have the powers to impose a solution in law if those in scope do not do the same.”