Agenda item

Report attached

The report provided an update to sub-committee of the position of Housing services resident safety and compliance programmes against its statutory and regulatory duties including duties under the Building Safety Act 2022.

As agreed by Cabinet the Place Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee will be provided with regular reports on the Housing compliance performance as part of the internal governance approach and performance is also scrutinised monthly by both the Compliance board and the Asset Management Sub Steering Group.

The report detailed the following compliance areas regarding resident safety:

·         Gas Safety – all gas appliances should be inspected annually and a Landlord Gas Safety Record (LGSR) provided.

·         Electrical Safety – all social rented properties must have an electrical inspection (EICR) every 10 years, although recent regulation changes require private landlords to have 5 year inspections and this is considered best practice in social rented properties and the approach we have adopted.

·         Lift Safety – Monthly inspections and planned maintenance regimes and an annual certificate provided by our insurer.

·         Water Safety – all relevant water systems must be checked for legionella risk, this is based on a risk based approach which could be a cyclical programme every 2 years. All actions flowing from the legionella inspection must be completed within prescribed timescales.

·         Fire Safety – All relevant properties must have a valid Fire risk assessment (FRA) undertaken on a risk based approach which can be on a cyclical programme between 1 and 3 years. All actions flowing from the FRA must be completed within prescribed timescales.

·         Asbestos – under the asbestos regulations all communal areas must have a valid management level asbestos survey which must be held on a relevant asbestos register. In addition, completing a survey programme of all domestic properties to ensure risk is managed, this is not however a statutory requirement under the asbestos regulations.

·         Fire Door Checks – Carrying out flat entrance door checks in all tower blocks. Monitoring has been ongoing since June 2023 as part of the new requirements under the 2022 Building Safety Act. In addition, the service was completing fire door checks in all blocks with communal heating to ensure risk was appropriately managed. These additional checks are not a statutory requirement under the new Building Safety Act.

It was noted that all resident safety key performance indicators (KPIs) are set at 100% as shown in Appendix 1. After a significant programme of work the service has been able to complete most programmes and ensure the relevant evidence was in place to support this position.

It was to be noted that given the seriousness of resident safety all KPIs are set at 100% as shown in Appendix 1. After a significant programme of work LBH has been able to complete most programmes and ensure the relevant evidence was in place to support this position.

The sub-committee was informed that there were a number of EICRs to complete, these were hard to reach properties and work was being done to resolve these. All action from the Building Safety Act are captured on the Action plan in appendix 2.

Officers highlighted some new legislation introduced which flowed from the Grenfell Enquiry, The Fire Safety Regulations 2022 to the sub-committee.  It was stated that the service had introduced some additional monitoring regimes to ensure compliance such as communal doors checked every 3 months and flat front entrance doors checked every 12 months. These have now been included in the report.

The legislation also introduced some additional requirements around way finding signage requirements, floor plans, lifts and essential firefighting equipment which the service is working to ensure compliance.

The sub-committee was informed that in order to achieve this requirement the service was exploring a tool which has allowed for 3D model of each high rise building. Officers are now able to identify all relevant equipment, isolation of services and other relevant information. The service is still populating the tool and are now sharing some sections with the London Fire Board (LFB).

It was stated that there are plans to share relevant sections with residents as part of the service engagement strategy. This will also be the core methodology for providing information to the new Building Safety Regulator as part of the building safety case file.

The Sub-Committee noted the report.