I asked Brent Council abour progress on a Residents Engagement Strategy which is part of the post-Grenfell Building Safety Act, much of which came into force on April 1st 2024.
This is their response:
I can confirm that last October the Council launched its Building Safety Engagement Strategy with all those living in a high-risk buildings. To do this, the Council followed the Government Guidance for developing a strategy https://www.gov.uk/guidance/preparing-a-resident-engagement-strategy#after-you-have-prepared-your-strategy consulting with those living in these blocks and providing a copy to every household.
We are pleased to report that since October 2023 we have been hosting the first series of Building Safety Engagement meetings.
The 1st April deadline is not specific to the Engagement Strategy (please see the section within the Acthttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/part/4/crossheading/engagement-with-residents-etc/enacted), but a requirement for implementing the Building Safety Act (2022) such as registering high-risk buildings.
For your information, our working strategy can be found here https://www.brent.gov.uk/housing/tenant-services/health-and-safety-in-the-home#[buildingsafetyact.
A review following 6 months of piloting the strategy is scheduled and will go to Cabinet as part of a wider update on the Council’s overarching approach to engaging with Council Tenant and Leaseholders.
My conclusion from this response is that the Strategy is being consulted on but is not yet in place. I would be interested in comments from anyone who has attended these consultation meetinsg and the number of residents in attendance verus the number eligible to attend.
5 comments:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/13/post-grenfell-evacuation-guidelines-little-or-no-help-say-firefighters
Hi Martin, while you were away the firefighters Union criticized the government over their recent announcement on PEEPs. (Personal Emeregency Evacuation Plans)
Last week the Home Office report on second staircases added that they are still looking at what to do about PEEPs but the decision will be made in due course.
Last year the government reported that The Grenfell Inquiry Report will not be published until April 2024 but is now likely to be published in the next few months.
Many commentators are expecting that the Report will say that PEEPs must be legally binding after the chair of the Inquiry has already said the government must implement them in law.
As for the council"s response to your enquiry, the deadline for publishing a safety case report for each of the 42 buildings in scope was the 1st April 2024 but I have not seen any yet to see how they carried out their assessments.
It was suggested that AP's and PAP's should have published their Resident's Engagement Strategy by the 1st April 2024 just in case the Regulator called them in to apply for a 'building safety assessment certificate', which requires a copy of the RE strategy to be enclosed with the application for the certificate.
https://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2024/03/13/fire-union-warns-government-grenfell-style-risk-over-weak-high-rise-evacuation
This is the first time I have ever heard of this. I've lived in Brent 14 years, have spoken to seven cllrs (including the leader of the council) extensively about the issues affecting our building and yet not one of them, including current Labour cllrs for our ward, apparently thought to get in touch with me or our residents association... Not surprising but typical of Brent Labour approach to this issue
The BSR sent this to me-
"The Building Safety Regulator will be assessing the management of building safety risks by Principal Accountable Persons (PAPs) in all higher-risk buildings (18 metres or taller or 7 storeys or more with at least two residential units) over a five-year period from April 2024. Building safety risks are the risk of spread of fire and the risk of structural failure.
Higher-risk buildings which contain Large Panel Systems (LPS) and which were built in the 1960s, have not been reinforced in line with the recommendations of the Ronan Point Inquiry and contain a mains gas supply will be assessed in the first year. The number of buildings meeting these criteria is 142.
There are 245 LPS higher-risk buildings from the 1960s in total. The remainder will be assessed based on their height and the number of dwellings they contain; the taller the building and the greater the number of dwellings the sooner it will be assessed in the five-year cycle.
As part of the assessment of the individual PAP's management arrangements, where the building is constructed through LPS, there are specific questions to be addressed. These include: whether the building was remediated following Ronan Point, the nature of that remediation work and what checking has been carried out. If the building has not been remediated, or its remediation status is not known, the PAP will have to demonstrate what alternative measures have been taken to prevent structural failure."
Rowan Point like Grenfell had an Inquiry and then delay between that and 'lessons learned' actions being finally taken. From what's going on/ dire conditions being maintained, I don't think Brent has engaged with LPS South Kilburn tower residents yet.
See BBC News 'South Kilburn Estate: Derelict land becomes dumping ground' published 11 March has some powerful images of LPS management in SK. Two towers south of this that BBC didn't venture to.
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