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Named and shamed: who are the landlords yet to start the removal of Grenfell-style cladding from their buildings?

Nearly four years since the Grenfell tragedy, there is still dangerous aluminium composite material cladding on dozens of blocks across the country, and in some cases work to remove it has yet to start. Who are the landlords yet to start the removal of this cladding? Inside Housing’s news team investigates

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Nearly four years since the Grenfell tragedy, there is still dangerous cladding on dozens of blocks across the country. Who are the landlords yet to start the removal of this cladding? @insidehousing’s news team investigates #UKhousing

It has been 1,401 days since the Grenfell Tower fire.

On that night in June, the fire ripped through the 23-storey residential block in west London, killing 72 people, with the aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding on the walls since identified as the “primary cause” of the rapid fire spread.

But nearly four years on, Grenfell-style ACM cladding remediation has still not been completed on 223 buildings across the country. Even more shockingly, on 43 of those buildings work to remove the deadly cladding has yet to even start.


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Despite the government setting absolute deadlines on when building owners must remove the cladding by (deadlines that have come and gone) and threatening “enforcement action” on those that do not comply, there are still many freeholders that have failed to get work started on the buildings they own.

As part of its drive to speed up the pace of work, the government has now started naming those landlords that have yet to start work, every month.

But while the names of these companies will continue to be published on the government’s monthly building safety data, the names often tell us little. Freeholders of large buildings are not household names.

Inside Housing has tried to answer those questions, and dig into who the named landlords are, and ensure they are not just words on a page. 

Here is our run-down of who the building owners yet to start work to remove Grenfell-style cladding actually are.

Henley Homes

Henley Homes is a London-based property developer. In 2019 it posted a profit of £5.1m from a turnover of £18.8m.

The developer has a long track record of delivering homes in the capital and working with social housing providers.

It has completed a 248-apartment scheme in north-west London with Notting Hill Genesis and owns a construction arm, Henley Construct, which is delivering homes for Optivo. Inside Housing could not obtain details of which building, or buildings, Henley Homes had been added to the government’s ACM list for.

The firm did hit the headlines in 2019, when it was revealed that it was the developer behind the south London development where it was discovered that social housing residents were barred from accessing some communal play areas.

A spokesperson for Henley Homes commented: “This is a complex matter which is subject to an extensive process in order to arrive at an appropriate solution. The building in question is a seven-storey development in Luton which was once a three-storey existing office building that was converted with additional storeys on top. The ACM element is on the street-facing facade of the building on floors 3-6.

“We have made great progress and are diligently working towards an early conclusion. We maintain regular weekly contact with Homes England to discuss progress and with the residents to allay concerns. We can confirm that the contractor is due to start on site in June prior to the funding application being lodged in early May.

“As ever, the health and safety of our residents is our utmost priority and we can assure our residents that we are taking this very seriously.”

The developer would not name the building.

Betterpride Limited 

Betterpride Limited 

Betterpride is the freeholder of Premier House (pictured), a former office block in Edgware that was converted to flats using permitted development rights and clad with ACM in 2014/15. The building was purchased by Betterpride in 2017, shortly before the Grenfell Tower fire. 

It was one of several buildings to be clad by Harley Facades, the cladding contractor that carried out the installation of the cladding to Grenfell Tower.

Work to replace the ACM cladding on the building has stalled due to a £1m shortfall between the amount of money the government has agreed to provide to Betterpride and the estimated cost of the work. The government will not provide Betterpride with funding until it has signed a building contract, however Betterpride said it cannot sign a contact until the shortfall is resolved. 

The problem stems from the fact that three professional landlords own 30 of the flats in the building and EU rules prevent any individual receiving more than €200,000 in state aid. 

The government has said it is currently looking into its post-Brexit state aid rules and will update fund applicants soon on this. 

In the meantime, Betterpride has proposed making up the shortfall by adding three storeys to the top of Premier House, with profits being used to forward fund the cladding works. 

At the same time, Betterpride will attempt to reclaim costs from the three professional landlords via a tribunal. If it is successful, it has said the profits will go towards refunding leaseholders for the £4,000 they have each spent on measures including a 24/7 waking watch and fire compartmentation work. 

A planning application has been submitted for the extension and is currently waiting approval from Barnet Council. 

Betterpride declined to comment. 

Kamario Limited, Proxima GR Properties Limited, Sanhall GR Limited and Rockwell (FC100) Limited 

Four of the 13 entities in the government’s list up until 31 March – Kamario Limited, Proxima GR Properties Limited, Sanhall GR Limited and Rockwell (FC100) Limited – are part of the same complex network of companies.

Of these four, only Rockwell (FC100) remains, with the other three removed due to removal work beginning.

A spokesperson for the companies said the relevant building owned by Rockwell (FC100) Limited was only acquired relatively recently and its previous owners had made very little progress in fixing the cladding. Work is expected to start in June.

All four companies are linked to Consensus Business Group (CBG). Mr Watson is a director at CBG and each company, as well as a firm called Estates and Management (E&M). E&M is itself part of CBG, and provides management services to the freeholder companies’ properties, including orchestrating cladding remediation. All four directors of the freeholder companies are also directors of E&M.

Consensus Business Group’s website claims that the firm is the UK’s biggest owner of residential freeholds with an estimated 300,000 units, representing more than 1% of England’s housing stock.

The chair of Consensus Business Group is Vincent Tchenguiz, a multimillionaire property mogul and Conservative Party donor.

However, Mr Tchenguiz does not directly own any of the four companies on the government list and is not involved in the running of the buildings or the removal of cladding.

William Procter, Charles McGill, Paul Hallam and, as of February 2021, David Watson are directors of each of the four companies named by the government, with Daniel Lau as secretary.

Each are involved in hundreds of real estate companies and work for Consensus Business Group. Mr Hallam previously worked for housing association Peabody, as its head of business analysis from 2003 to 2007.

The directors – Mr Procter, Mr McGill, Mr Hallam and Mr Watson – are paid by another of Mr Tchenguiz’s companies, Fairhold Services Ltd. Fairhold’s own accounts state that the highest-paid director received £784,588 in 2019 and £1.15m in 2018.

Proxima also owns the Citiscape tower block in Croydon, which was among the first in the country where residents were ordered to pay millions to fix Grenfell-style cladding.

Developer Barratt eventually agreed to meet the remediation costs – with the block representing a major chunk of the giant house builder’s £56.3m fire safety bill incurred for the six months to December 2020.

The Northpoint building in Bromley, also affected by cladding issues, is owned by Citistead Limited, also run by Mr Procter, Mr McGill, Mr Hallam, Mr Watson and Mr Lau. In January 2019, Inside Housing revealed that Mr Procter had dismissed ministers’ plans to force building owners to pay for cladding remediation as a “hollow threat”.

A spokesperson for the directors of the companies said: “As directors, we have a legal obligation to make sure properties are safe to live in and we take this responsibility extremely seriously. The remediation works at the three developments have now started, and as a result, the entities have been removed from the government’s responsible entities list. Estates & Management, as appointed agents, have been working tirelessly to achieve this and have been engaging with MHCLG throughout.”

Property managing agent Estates & Management, accounts for which also name Euro Investments Overseas Incorporated as the holding company and the Tchenguiz Family Trust as the ultimate controlling party, manages the blocks owned by the four companies still clad in ACM.

A spokesperson for Estates & Management said: “Our team is determined to remediate these buildings as soon as possible and has taken clear and advanced steps to progress the remediation works.

“We have been working closely with MHCLG on finalising the Funding Agreements that have allowed the funds for works to commence.

“We found the discussions with MHCLG took longer than hoped due to concerns over elements of the ACM funding agreements.”

The spokesperson added that this was Consensus Business Group’s position too.

The spokesperson said that Mr Tchenguiz is not directly involved in the running of the properties or the removal of cladding, and it is therefore not within his remit to comment on this matter.

Chaplair

This is the second appearance on the ‘named and shamed’ list for Chaplair after it also made the list last February, alongside four other freeholders.

The company was formed back in 1988 and according to its accounts from 1995 it had purchased freehold properties totalling £30,000. Its latest accounts show that the company has expanded since then, and it now owns property worth £8.7m as of 30 September 2019.
There is little information to find with regards to the company, apart from its involvement in a landmark case in the Court of Appeal. The case was found in Chaplair’s favour, with the judge deciding that landlords should be able to recoup costs incurred through the small claims court in cases where the terms of the lease allows for recovery of this.

When approached and asked to respond to the presence of its name on the list and details of which building it was in relation to, a spokesperson said that it was prevented from discussion due to a confidentiality clause in the funding agreement.

However, when Inside Housing asked MHCLG about this, a spokesperson said that there was nothing in the agreement that stopped applicants, or individual leaseholders, from commenting on building safety matters to the press, or to anyone else.

It added that the confidentiality clause referred to the specific remediation works and said government funding did not absolve owners of their responsibility to make buildings safe.

When presented with this statement from the government, a spokesperson for Chaplair said they were unable to comment.

Landor Residential 

Landor Residential 

Landor Residential is a subsidiary of Ireland-based international property developer Ballymore, which made a profit of £80.3m in 2018/19.

It owns the freehold to New Providence Wharf, a 559-apartment complex developed by Ballymore in east London that was found to have ACM cladding in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire. Since then, who pays for the remedial work has been a long-running saga. In the case of New Providence Wharf (pictured), Landor is the freeholder, as well as property manager.

Ballymore has repeatedly refused to pay for remediation work in full. In 2019, New Providence Wharf residents were issued an ultimatum by the developer. They were given two weeks to accept an offer where Ballymore would pay for 20% of the works and provide a no-interest bridging loan to leaseholders, or risk having to foot the entire bill themselves. This was issued before the government set up its £200m ACM removal fund for private developments.

Speaking in parliament earlier this year Apsana Begum, MP for Poplar and Limehouse, gave an update on remedial works, saying that residents had been told work would start in the spring.

She also said that the full costs of remediation of fire safety issues at the development could be between £12.5m and £25m.

It is understood that the current estimate of the work is now below £12.5m and that Ballymore has committed to paying £1.5m towards the costs of remediating all facade remediation projects at the development. Meanwhile, Ballymore submitted applications to the ACM Cladding Fund and the Building Safety Fund and has had £8m of grant funding approved by the government to go towards the work. It is understood that this is the full amount of money applied for.

A Ballymore spokesperson said: “The safety of our residents is paramount. We see our developments as communities and neighbourhoods of people, not just physical buildings. We are committed to delivering a safe and comfortable environment for all our residents, which is why we maintain management of our estates even after all the homes are sold.

“Crucially, the work needed to replace the ACM cladding on this building is extremely complicated, much more so than the installation of a new build facade. Our building is horseshoe-shaped, opens directly onto the River Thames, accommodates 559 apartments across five blocks and is fully occupied by more than 1,000 residents.

“To replace elements of a building facade, under this set of circumstances, is an extensive process. We have a project team of many different professional disciplines in place, who have already committed months of focused attention and meticulous work to arrive at both a workable and cost-effective solution.

“This project is well under way and a start on site is anticipated this April.”

Rocquefort Properties Ltd

Jersey-based Rocquefort Properties forms part of a complex web of property companies.

Columbia Estates Ltd shares directors with Rocquefort.

David Kennedy – a director of Rocquefort Properties, Columbia Estates Ltd and Formation Group Plc – told Inside Housing that the cladding remediation was delayed, in part due to a dispute with the managing agency Sterling Estates Management Ltd on the building in question, which he said would not be resolved until it was taken to the High Court.

Mr Kennedy claimed that the managing agents had not advised the freeholder that government funding was available for cladding removal or instructed surveyors to undertake surveys on the building.

He said: “We are doing our very best and [the works] are all timetabled in.”
Mr Kennedy refused to name the building in question.

Sterling Estates Management Ltd said that Rocquefort’s claims that it failed to alert the freeholder to government funding and the fact it had appointed a surveyor were “factually incorrect”.

A spokesperson added: “At this time given the ongoing legal dispute with Rocquefort and other companies within their group, we are unable to provide detailed explanation as to the nature of the legal dispute as the same is ongoing.”

Formation Group Plc, another group for which Mr Kennedy is a director, was issued an improvement notice by Lambeth Council ordering the removal of ACM cladding on one of its buildings, Norwich House. This property is not believed to have anything to do with Rocquefort’s appearance on the list.

Peel Media

Peel Media

Peel Media is a subsidiary of Peel (Holdings) Ltd, a joint venture between development and financial giants Peel and Legal & General.

Peel Group has a long history of infrastructure and real estate investment and development in the North West and has been involved in projects such as John Lennon Airport, the Trafford Centre and Gloucester Quays. Legal & General is a huge global asset management company.

The company was set up in 2006, just before the start of the development of Media City in Salford Quays, Manchester. Its principal aim was property investment and development for the landmark site. According to its latest financial accounts, Peel Media posted a profit of £14.9m for 2019/20.

The company had three buildings in the Salford Quays area covered in ACM cladding: two residential blocks, No 1 and The Heart blocks; and one commercial block, White Tower, which includes a hotel. Works to replace the residential tower blocks are now well under way, while work on the commercial tower is yet to start.

A Peel Media spokesperson said: “Due to logistics and the resource available in the current marketplace, we have taken a phased approach to the remediation works, prioritising the two residential towers, No 1 and The Heart, and works to replace the ACM cladding are well under way.

“Having completed a detailed design, tender process and selected a contractor, we’re anticipating starting work on White Tower, which is a commercial tower block, comprising a hotel and offices, by the end of May or beginning of June.

“We have been in constant communication with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government who are satisfied with our phased approach. Peel Media remains committed to a timely completion of the replacement of ACM cladding and we’re making good progress.”

Adriatic Land 5

Adriatic Land 5 is a residential freehold company that is linked to the £1.4bn Long Harbour Ground Rent Fund. According to Companies House there are at least 10 different freehold companies using the name Adriatic Land, all of which are ultimately owned and controlled by major institutional UK pension fund investors, with HomeGround acting as portfolio asset manager.

There is currently no publicly available information about the ACM-clad building owned by Adriatic Land 5 and HomeGround would not provide details of which building they were on the list for.

A spokesperson for HomeGround, which acts on behalf of Adriatic Land 5, said: “The government’s decision to name and shame responsible building owners who are committed to remediating unsafe buildings as quickly as possible is counterproductive and does nothing to assist the remediation process, which is being moved forward diligently at the building concerned.

“Our building safety team has been working collaboratively with our managing agents and government officials at MHCLG for a while now and has kept MHCLG fully informed of progress with all affected buildings in our portfolio.

“In a number of cases, the freeholders have stepped in to forward fund necessary work taking place, while applications to fund remediation costs sit with the government’s own Building Safety Fund.

“We remain committed to working with government, and all other stakeholders, to get these issues fixed as quickly as possible.”

In February 2020, the government named Adriatic Land 3 on its list, but has since removed it. It is understood that cladding work on the building in question has now commenced.

Adriatic Land 3 is also the freeholder of Skyline Central 1 in Manchester, a block which was covered with HPL cladding. Leaseholders of the building recently lost a judicial review against the government’s decision to exclude them from its Building Safety Fund as work to replace the HPL cladding was already underway. Prior to remediation beginning, many leaseholders took up an offer from Adriatic Land 3 to receive long-term, interest-free loans of up to £27,000 to cover the work.

HomeGround criticised the government at the time for excluding Skyline Central 1 from the fund.

Pinelink Developments Ltd

Little can be found about Pinelink Developments. Inside Housing can find no record of it on Companies House, or any links to any developments.

 

Clarification: The original version of this article said that the government has provided Betterpride with £3.8m in funding to cover remediation costs. It has been updated to make it clear that while Betterpride has been allocated the funding from the government, it has not yet received any money. Betterpride has said the government will not provide this funding until Betterpride has entered into a building contract, which Betterpride says it is not yet able to do so until the issue of the funding shortfall is resolved.

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