Building owners named and shamed over cladding - but will it help?

The government has followed through on its threat to publish the names of building owners with no plan in place to remove dangerous cladding from their buildings. Five companies' names were published in the press earlier this week but is ?naming and shaming? helpful, or is it, as one developer has said, simply counterproductive?
The publication of the companies? names, which are Adriatic Land 3, Chaplair, Grangewalk Developments, RMB 102 and STG Management, follows repeated warnings from the government that it would name and shame building owners that had failed to act. According to the government, the five companies have taken responsibility for replacing cladding on their buildings but have yet to start tendering for the work.
The government does admit that these landlords may already have taken steps toward remediation. However, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is still threatening ?enforcement action? if they don?t ?act swiftly?.
One of the freeholders says it is ?disappointed and surprised? by the Government?s action, which it describes as ?counterproductive.? A spokesperson for HomeGround, the company that manages Adriatic Land, says it has already provided funding of £791,128 to avoid residents being faced with fire safety costs and is working on a solution to the problems faced in its blocks. In the meantime, according to Inside Housing, an application to fund the remediation work has been lodged with the government?s cladding fund and is awaiting approval.
Last month?s MHCLG building safety figures point to the fact that of the 175 private sector blocks that feature ACM cladding, there are still 143 where remedial work hasn't started. There are also 43 buildings where an 'intent to remediate' has been reported and where plans are now being developed.
However, if ARMA?s recent survey is accurate (read our blog Are half a million of us living in dangerous buildings? for more on this) the cladding crisis ? and it really is a crisis for many leaseholders - goes way beyond ACM. The ripple effect is now being felt in blocks right across the country and it will take more than naming and shaming to sort it out.  

03/09/2020
Author : Mary-Anne Bowring

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