Agenda item

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 However, if breached then this can make it no longer valid.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 brief on this matter.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny concluded her presentation and hoped that the Scrutiny review stimulated a good response.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal responded to the review findings, welcoming the input of Scrutiny in developing this policy. She further reflected that 2 years had passed since the tragedy at Grenfell and the Council’s thoughts were with the families and residents affected by this tragedy which had further shook all local authorities’ consideration of housing issues. She felt that it was right to put the safety of residents first and a critical part of the Borough plan was to drive up quality of housing.

The fire at a recent block in Barking demonstrated that local authorities should continually be considering how buildings are built and the Cabinet Member looked forward to working with the Scrutiny colleagues as the Council moved to the next stage of the report when the Implications of the Hackitt review were fully considered by the Council.

The Cabinet Member was impressed with the recommendations which were all marked for agreement, apart from the recommendation concerning ensuring that residential care homes were complying with relevant statutory guidance and making fire safety information available to residents and visitors. This was partially agreed as the care quality commission has a role to play in this.In relation to the areas of Council responsibility, the Commissioning Unit would identify any shortcomings in the fire safety information available to residents and visitors and confirm whether care homes were compliant.

In response to questions from Councillor, Brabazon, Barnes and Amin, the following information was provided by Cllr das Neves and Cllr Ibrahim:

• In relation to the timing of implementing clearer roles and responsibilities on the design, this was a question of ‘how’ this can be implemented and related to the structures being in place to allow this. Further information was included on page 69 of the attached report. Assurance was provided that the Council will implement the actions outlined before this becomes an issue and will not wait.

• In relation to the timescale for establishing the working group to consider how to most effectively address the shortage of professional and technical staff within the Council through developing pathways to train and develop new staff as well as incentives to attract suitable individuals, the Cabinet Member would follow this up and add a date.

• Noted the high number of Housing Association blocks in the borough and the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny agreed to consider including at least a large Housing association and a small Housing Association block in the next stage of the review as a case study.

• Following a recent assessment of some buildings, the security connected with compartmentalisation did become an issue. This was where residents are completing interior works themselves or fitting grills to doors and windows.  Homes for Haringey were seeking a further wider understanding of the level of the impact of these individual works across the board and making sure residents can escape safely should there be a need to.

RESOLVED

1. To consider the Overview and Scrutiny Review of Fire Safety in High Rise Blocks (attached as Appendix 1).

2. To agree the responses to the Overview and Scrutiny report recommendations (attached as Appendix 2).

Reasons for decision

On 25 March 2019, Overview and Scrutiny Committee approved the Scrutiny Panel Review of fire safety in high-rise blocks.

In developing its report, the Panel held a number of evidence gathering sessions and took evidence from Council officers as well as a range of experts and local stakeholders. The Panel then made a number of recommendations, which were adopted by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 25 March 2019.

The recommendations made in the report can be used to help guide the ongoing development of fire safety policy for the Council’s housing stock, particularly in respect of the 54 high-rise blocks. While the report does not set out a detailed list of explicit objectives to be delivered to a given timescale, many of the recommendations are either currently being incorporated into the Council’s approach to fire safety in housing, or will be considered once proposals for implementing the recommendation of the Hackitt review and Grenfell Inquiry, are known. Specific reasons for each recommendation response are given in Appendix 2; the draft responses to recommendations.

Alternative options considered

To refuse to accept the recommendations

This option was rejected because the recommendations are clearly of benefit to residents and will provide helpful guidance in putting in place plans to ensure that Council homes are safe.