Dear Editor,
We are now less than a week away from the deadline of 1st April 2024 for Brent Council to comply with the Building Safety Act, but because of Easter, it will be by the 28th March 2024.
Failure to comply with statutory Housing management service requirements and deadlines, may result in a serious health and safety incident or non- compliance with legislation, which may lead to serious injuries and/or fatalities, reputational damage, fines and/or imprisonment.
As a landlord we have to ensure we are complying with all of our statutory duties and health and safety compliance particularly Fire, Legionella, Asbestos, Gas and Electric (FLAGE) form part of those duties. Failure in any of the areas would be a breach of the consumer standards and the Council would be subject to sanctions from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).
Following the Grenfell Tower inquiry findings published in October 2019, there was a number of recommendations made to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. The Government undertook to introduce new regulations based on these recommendations. These regulations take the form of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and extend duties imposed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The Building Safety Act 2022 was introduced to improve the housing safety standards for residents giving them more rights and protections. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will oversee the safety and performance of all buildings with a special focus on high rise buildings.
The above have stipulated actions that have to be completed by certain deadlines to show assurance that our buildings are safe and to avoid any further actions by the Building Safety Regulator. One example is the preparation of Building Safety Cases for our 41 High Rise Blocks by April 2024.
The Building Safety Act working group was formed in September 2023 and currently meet fortnightly to assess progress on adherence with the Act. The group has developed a process for updating vulnerable resident’s details that are held in the secure information boxes. The group have also started to engage with residents in high-risk buildings. The first three block meetings were held in December to discuss building safety and the fire strategy for each block. All high-risk building were registered complete with structural and safety data within the deadline.
We have not been successful in the permanent recruitment of the Building Safety Manager however we do not expect this to have an impact on any of our deadlines. We have commissioned a Building Safety Case pilot with consultants Penningtons Ltd with a view to instructing them on the other 39 blocks if the pilot is successful.
Meetings are being held with consultants to assist the Council in determining how to receive, use and manage Building Information Management information. The draft Building Safety Engagement Strategy has gone out to residents’ consultation and will go out again when the wider Engagement Strategy is published.