Fire safety has certainly been an area of work to prioritise in recent years.
Following the tragic events at Grenfell, fire and building safety has become one of the most pressing issues facing residents, homeowners and the residential property sector.
We’re seeing higher standards than ever on building safety, and most important are the issues around cladding and fire safety. Our customers rightly want a safe home environment and peace of mind that regulation and standards are being exceeded.
We know this is a big concern to Resident Directors too, with our 2021 survey showing that 70% of Directors are concerned about new and proposed changes to regulation and compliance in building safety.
The property managers’ role in building safety
A property manager’s role is to manage the maintenance of buildings, and any shared residential amenities and communal areas. Our role and responsibilities within the current building safety regime include; being the main point of contact for homeowners on building and fire safety matters, using our expertise to identify what works need to be done, and selecting the right specialists to get the job done. However, it’s important to remember that property managers do not build or own the residential buildings they manage so we work closely with freeholders and other parties involved in the building safety agenda – this includes freeholders, developers, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and enforcing authorities among others, to help with problem-solving and decision making. With building and fire safety being our highest priority, as it is for many in the industry, we’ve increased the senior input into our health and safety response, with a new Building Safety Director role, alongside a Head of Fire and Head of Health and Safety. We also have a dedicated Building Safety Team dealing with the buildings affected by the new building safety guidance. This team, as well as our operational colleagues, are communicating regularly with residents at every stage. This includes resident meetings (typically via Zoom at the moment) for those homeowners who feel this is helpful, as well as Q&As and regular updates to our external wall system content on our website.
Working with the Building Safety Fund
This team is also leading the work on applications to the Building Safety Fund (BSF) where buildings haven’t been able to secure funding via alternative sources. We have, so far, seen some good outcomes, with around 50% of the buildings registered having been invited to apply for funding. However, it is understandable that the pace of change is still slower than many homeowners would like. With the Government deadlines to make final decisions on which buildings will receive funding extended to 30 June 2021, and many buildings yet to learn if their application has been successful for the next phase of the Building Safety Fund, there will naturally be uncertainly among many homeowners as they await an outcome. FirstPort, alongside industry bodies and many other parties involved, has a continued role in liaising with Government to contribute positively and seek to constructively address issues and outline concerns based on our experiences. In addition, FirstPort has pledged that it will only recover its costs and will make no profit on the work it does to support buildings remediated through the Building Safety Fund. This pledge can be seen in full, here.
Update on the Golden Thread
Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility, not just fire safety professionals, and the golden thread of information, identified in the Hackitt review into building regulations and fire safety will be an important driver of consistency and accountability across the industry. Ultimately the golden thread is about making sure that those responsible for a building and its safety can demonstrate that they have all the documents and records to allow them to actively look after a building and take ownership of fire and building safety throughout its lifespan. So that we’re ahead of the game with this, we’ve been trialling our information-gathering approach at specific developments, allowing us to then create an action plan to identify what’s missing and how we address the gaps. Next step is to look into hosting platforms for this information, which will allow it to be easily accessible and securely stored. We are also looking at how we support and guide our RMCs through the golden thread requirements.
