In 2002, the Building Department of the Municipality of Naples began a programme to promote the restoration of historic buildings by offering economic benefits. The initiative intended to give a meaningful contribution to the recovery and restoration of several buildings and public monument areas, public squares and roads. Thus, a cooperative project between the public and private sector was formed; the public stakeholders were asked to establish the rules, as well as to identify strategic actions and economic incentives in order to make the initiative ‘attractive’.
In order to effectively support this initiative and to manage some phases of the programme, a non-profit hybrid public company was established using the same name as the project, SI.RE.NA. (Società per le Iniziative di Recuipero di Napoli, the Society of Initiatives for the Recovery of Naples Company). The Sirena Company has been entrusted with the duties of promoting the initiative and providing an interface between administrative bodies and the building owners, managing the point of information and keeping company accounts. In addition, the Sirena Company, amongst other things, promotes written agreements with professionals, banks and insurance companies; organises seminars and research on historic buildings and restoration procedures; and monitors the works and the compliance with the building regulations.
In order to promote health and safety in the workplace in the field of urban recovery and redevelopment, the Sirena project favours and promotes building regulations and the law, especially for those issues concerning health and safety at work and worker wages. To this end, the project closely monitors construction yards and, to qualify for Sirena project funding the contracting parties have to sign contracts containing specific clauses concerned with health and safety at work. Companies willing to hire workers within the Sirena Project must have insurance coverage, and must also show their compliance with fundamental norms and fair treatment of workers. Compliance with these requisites will be controlled upon enrolment of interested companies in a dedicated ‘Open list’, kept by the Sirena Company. Another mandatory clause is the so-called ‘Sirena clause’ in which interested companies must report extortion by organised crime, should it occur, to the authorities; companies which fail to do so will be expelled from the Sirena Project.
To date, 985 projects have been funded. Should the Italian government decide to let the involved municipalities have free access to the funds prepared for this initiative, a rotational trust could be established allowing the restoration of many historical city centres all around Italy.
| Award info | |
| Award category: | partnership working |
|---|---|
| Award type: | submission |
| Award year: | 2009 |
| Project type | |
| Sector: | Transport and infrastructure |
| Type of activity: | e-government |
| Keywords: | Urban redevelopment and historical centre, recovery, cooperation, illegal work |
| Short English description: | In order to promote health and safety in the workplace in the field of urban recovery and redevelopment, the Sirena project favours and promotes building regulations and the law, especially for those issues concernin health and safety at work and worker wages |
| Further information | |
| Organisation: | Comune di Napoli |
| Other applicants: | |
| Homepage: | |
| Level of government: | local level |
| Size of organisation: | >100 |
| Number of people involved: | |
| Country: | Italy |
| EU membership: | EU member |
| Language code: | en |
| Start date: | |
| End date: | |