Issue - meetings

Note from the Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered an update on the implementation of the recommendations of its review on Fire Safety in High Rise Blocks at its meeting on 15 October 2020.   It resolved to recommend to Cabinet that at least two apprentice Building Control Officers be recruited to the Council’s Building Control team.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny introduced the report on fire safety in high rise blocks. The Committee had met on the 15^th of October to consider an update on the implementations of the Fire Safety Review which had been ratified by Overview and Scrutiny in March 2019 and responses to the recommendations agreed by Cabinet in July 2019. The Committee noted that efforts to recruit additional fire safety officers had not been successful, and concern was raised at the speed of progress. Therefore, there was a recommendation made to recruit at least two apprentice building control officers.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal responded and recommended that Cabinet accept the recommendation to recruit at least two apprentices in the Building Control service who would be recruited to start working with the Council in the 2021/22 financial year. This course of action was also agreed with by Cabinet.

It was noted that an officer working group had been set up to act on new building and fire safety requirements and its remit specifically included staffing issues to do with recruitment, retention, expertise, and training.

[Councillor Bull and Cllr Chandwani left the meeting at 6.42pm]

The Leader invited Cllr Ahmet to introduce the Scrutiny call in report on the Alterations Policy for Leaseholders and to outline the recommendations.

Cllr Ahmet outlined the outcome of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s consideration of the Cabinet’s decision at a special meeting on 1st of December. The Committee heard representations from Michael Hardy and Barbara Tierney from the Haringey Leaseholders Association and the call in signatories as well as the Cabinet Member and senior housing officers.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny highlighted the key themes of the representations considered, the resulting concerns which were listed at the report at paragraph 3, informing the recommendations at paragraphs 3.1 to 3.5.

The Leader thanked the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny for her presentation and invited the Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal to respond.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal thanked the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee for presenting the concerns of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and referred to the detailed call - in meeting which had helped address a lot of the issues that had been raised in the report.

Responding to the concerns and subsequent recommendations raised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the following information was provided:

• The recommended policy was based on the fundamental fact that the Council, as freeholder, was liable for resident safety and for the structure of the building, which under the terms of the lease included windows and external doors. The findings of the Hackitt Review, the first phase of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry and the Government’s proposed Building Safety Bill, all provided firm evidence that the existing Alterations Policy was out of step with the direction of building safety regulations whereas the proposed policy reduced risk and clarified the Council’s primary accountability for building safety.
• Both the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 379

Robbie Erbmann, Assistant Director for Housing, reported on progress with the implementation of the recommendations of the scrutiny review on Fire Safety in High Rise Blocks as follows:

a.    The Building Safety Bill would provide the framework for the implementation of the recommendations of the Hackett Review and was likely to result in sweeping changes when passed.    Although a further report on the legislative changes was due to come to the Committee on 12 January, he felt that it might be better to wait for this until such time as the bill had progressed further through parliament;

b.    The practical application of the new legislation was currently being worked through, including the requirements for an Accountable Officer and Building Safety Manager as well as the need for building fire safety cases for high rise blocks;

c.    Building Control officers had been upskilled and now all had the highest competencies for fire safety. Homes for Haringey were currently also recruiting for their building safety management team.  It had been planned to recruit a single person to undertake the roles required but these had now been spread across the team due to the very limited number of individuals there were who possessed all the required skills; and

d.    Intrusive fire risk assessments were being undertaken on all high rise blocks on Broadwater Farm and other blocks and would be completed within 9 to 12 months.

Bob McIver, the Head of Building Control, reported that although efforts that had been made to recruit additional Building Control officers, these had not been very successful so action had instead been taken to upskill current staff.  Consideration was being given to recruiting apprentices but it was not easy to deliver training at the moment though, due to the team not currently being in the office due to the pandemic.  In addition, funding was a big issue.

In answer to a question, it was noted that the communication strategy regarding engagement with residents on fire safety was currently being updated and that it could be shared with the Committee when completed (Action: AD for Housing).  Signage was also now being provided in a range of community languages. 

The Committee requested that information on Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) of blocks be shared with local ward Councillors.  In response to a question, Farzad Fazilat, Head of Brokerage, reported that two engagement events had been held with care and nursing homes on fire safety and these had also included the Fire Service.  Care homes and nursing homes were required to display FRAs on their premises but not obliged to put them on their websites.  They were nevertheless encouraged to do so and he agreed to request that they do so again (Action: Head of Brokerage). 

Councillor Gordon stated that there were a number of individual issues relating to fire safety that she would like to consider in greater detail at the Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel.    In particular, there was a lack of information regarding FRAs on buildings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12