Following the introduction of the Building Safety Bill, the Health &
Safety Executive (HSE) has published some early key messages on the
proposed new safety case regime for high-rise residential
buildings.
A key element of the proposed new laws is that high-rise
residential buildings will require a "Safety Case" when they are
occupied. The Safety Case is intended to complement existing
building and fire safety legislation and requires those responsible
to think critically about the potential fire and structural hazards
in their buildings, and, show how they are keeping their buildings
safe.
Safety cases are a new concept and the HSE has been working with
a group of early industry adopters and other housing providers to
provide some insights to help those who may have new roles to
prepare for the changes and better understand what a safety case
is.
The HSE has published 'Safety case principles for high-rise residential
buildings' which provides support on taking risk-based
steps to keep people safe in and around residential buildings.
ARCH would urge ARCH member councils to consider the HSE
document and to feed any views and comments to ARCH Chief Executive
John Bibby: john.bibby@arch-housing.org.uk.