Issue - meetings

Cabinet to consider the  Scrutiny  Review of Fire Safety and consider the response to the  Scrutiny recommendations.

Scrutiny Review to be introduced by Cllr das Neves -  Chair of Overview and Scrutiny.

Response to the Scrutiny recommendations – Cllr Ibrahim  - Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, Cllr das Neves, introduced the Scrutiny Review on Fire Safety which had been initiated early last year in the aftermath of Grenfell as it was felt important to understand what was taking place in the borough on fire safety in blocks. Many local authorities have high rise blocks and there was understandable serious concern that many of the issues that led to the tragedy might not be unique to Grenfell Tower. The Committee was pleased to hear about the level of response from Haringey to Grenfell, particularly by Homes for Haringey. The review nevertheless performed the important function of closely examining the response as well as looking how other local authorities had responded for the purpose of learning. It identified a number of areas where it felt that additional action was necessary or improvements required

The Committee had met with residents, officers , Homes for Haringey staff, technical experts, other borough officers which had completed similar reviews and considered sources on fire safety, providing a varied evidential base to enable key recommendations to be compiled,

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny further advised that the Scrutiny Review performed an important function on how the Council should respond to Grenfell and continued to outline the themes underpinning the recommendations:

Communication was identified as vitally important, especially residents knowing what to do when a fire takes place and was vital for decreasing the risks. The Committee also focused on what the Council provides in the environment to mitigate fire risk. It was noted that the there was a significant proportion of leasehold properties outside of the realm of communication lines with the Council and this was a challenge in respect of mitigating risks . The key mechanism was enabling reporting on a timely manner essential to ensuring residents were safe.

The ‘stay put’ policy was discussed at length by the Committee and compartmentalisation was considered to be useful mechanism. However, if breached then this can make it no longer valid. There was discussions about how to deal with evaluating breached compartmentalisation.

In relation to the fitting of sprinklers, the Committee did not draw a final standpoint on this, noting that this was an interim Scrutiny report published prior to the Hackitt review can give views on this .It was likely to be an issue that was covered in either the implementation plans for the Hackitt review or when the Public Inquiry was completed. Therefore, it was probably be best to return to this matter at the appropriate time. There would likely be costs associated with any such recommendation for Councils.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny felt strongly that residents were at the heart of fire safety and should be able to come forward to the Council when they have concerns. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be returning to this matter when the Hackitt review has reported. The matters highlighted would also be further pursued by the Housing Scrutiny Panel who would keep a rolling  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178