The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
(MHCLG) have published the Social Sector (Building Safety)
Engagement Best Practice Group's final report.
The Group brought together social landlords and residents from
across the country, to consider how residents could be placed
at the heart of engagement on fire and building safety matters,
encouraging them to work in partnership with their landlords,
ensuring that their voices are heard, and that they can influence
decisions that affect their lives.
The independent report published by the Group looks at a series
of practical pilots, testing specific approaches to engagement of
residents on fire and building safety matters in different areas,
organisations and contexts.
The report highlights lessons learned and sets out
recommendations about good practice when engaging with residents on
fire and building safety issues addressing issues across three main
themes:
- Information and understanding
- Landlord and resident responsibilities
- Action to take in the event of a fire
The outcomes are intended not only to benefit residents and
landlords in the social sector but also to be applied more widely
across other tenures and the Group makes four key recommendations
for Government, housing providers and the sector as a whole:
- Recommendation 1: For the Government, in conjunction with NFCC
and other key stakeholders to review and set out a consistent
approach to national fire safety messages, particularly the
language used around the 'stay put' messaging. The stay put
strategy needs a similar campaign as the Government led Fire Kills,
Smoking Kills and Five a Day campaigns which have proved to be
successful, through the provision of a simple clear message of
important information. A similar campaign would enable landlords,
residents and Fire and Rescue Services to be cohesive and clear in
their approach without ambiguity or interpretation. Further
research into how residents apply / take on the fire safety
messages from landlords and the Fire and Rescue Service and behave
in the event of a fire would inform the campaign.
- Recommendation 2: Government should establish stronger
sanctions for tenants and leaseholders who do not provide details
of key health and safety requirements within their property which
might impact on the safety of their building, or do not provide
access for the purpose of assessing such compliance.
- Recommendation 3: Housing providers with high rise residential
blocks or those deemed high risk should consider as part of their
fire risk assessment and safety case, the retrofitting of BS 8629
Evacuation Alert systems. This will allow the Fire and Rescue
Service to send an evacuation signal to residents in the event of a
fire when the Incident Commander believes stay put is no longer a
viable option. Any housing provider that intends to use such a
system, should inform their local fire & rescue service.
- Recommendation 4: The sector should conduct further research
into tailored messaging, focusing on different demographic groups.
It should carry out further research to ensure that all groups with
protected characteristics are supported by landlords to achieve
effective access to properties and have key fire safety information
communicated to them. This could be undertaken in conjunction with
Fire and Rescue Services.
Government will now consider the Social Sector (Building Safety)
Engagement Best Practice Group's final report and say they will
respond to its recommendations in due course.
A copy of the final report is available to download from the
Government website.
The lessons learnt will support the requirements in the draft Building Safety Bill and the
legal duties on the designated "Accountable Person" to ensure that
residents automatically receive relevant building safety
information; implement the required Resident Engagement Strategy
which must be tailored to the needs of residents in each designated
high risk building; and set up a complaints system for
residents.