Improving the pace of fire safety remediation

Our specialism in managing large, complex city centre developments means our management portfolio comprises a high proportion of Higher Risk Buildings. We believe that we are responsible for coordinating more remediation projects on behalf of our clients than any other managing agent, with our projects accounting for 23% of applications to the original Building Safety Fund (BSF).

Improving the pace of remediation works requires an appreciation of the current obstacles faced. As our team has unique insights into the process which we believe could help overcome the existing challenges, we have written an open letter to Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, in the hope that we can develop a dialogue that will lead to positive change.

Our role in assisting our clients to bring these complex projects to completion has highlighted the extent of the delays currently being faced. We have a total of 73 developments where we are assisting with remediation due to unsafe external wall systems.  Only a proportion of these have either commenced or been completed.

We are acutely aware and sensitive to the impact of the protracted process on homeowners.  The process has caused, and continues to cause, a great deal of stress and anxiety to leaseholders as a result of their inability to sell, remortgage or rent their homes.  Let alone the safety concerns associated with living in an un-remediated building.

The prolonged and ever changing process needed to complete remediation work is having an extensive impact on everyone affected. We therefore read with interest the government’s recent pledge to speed up the process of cladding remediation. 

The letter details a number of underlying causes of delays in remediation. These include:

• Multiple changes in guidance as to how risks should be assessed
• The ever changing and unwieldly nature of the BSF application process
• The introduction of the Responsible Actors Scheme that has introduced another complex process for remediation, resulting in delays to allow developers time to get up to speed. Some projects were already progressed within the BSF
• Some developers being unwilling to sign the Developer Remediation Contract
• Lack of sufficient expert resource to remediate projects
• Ongoing lack of clarity, combined with an overly bureaucratic and confusing process
• The requirement for the Building Safety Regulator to give consent to projects prior to commencement

We have been working to seek solutions to these obstacles. Since 2020, we have employed a dedicated Fire Safety Remediation team at Rendall & Rittner to assist our clients in bringing these complex projects to completion as swiftly as possible.

We have also raised our concerns with the (then) Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government over the pressure faced by leaseholders as a result of service charge increases experienced due to fire remediation issues. We suggested that Insurance Premium Tax be reviewed in cases where buildings insurance costs have risen and call on the government once again to review this and additional ways of lessening the burden on leaseholders, for example by applying zero or a domestic rate of VAT on building safety related works and particularly the new additional costs arising from the BSA legislation.

We have also worked closely with our professional association, The Property Institute (TPI) to offer recommendations. These include emphasising the benefits of centralising remediation into a single body, as well as recommending an alternative route for obtaining the Leaseholder Deeds of Certificate and issuing the Landlord’s Certificate in situations where funding is developer pledged. To date, neither of these recommendations have been implemented.

In line with our own experiences, the Deputy Prime Minister recently highlighted that the pace of remediation on site is unacceptable. We hope that our letter shows the role that our extensive experience could play in bringing about real changes that accelerate the process and make homes safer for residents.