Agenda item

The Committee received a report which provided an update on the Building Safety Act and anticipated changes to regulations for high rise residential buildings. The report also set out details of the Council’s resident engagement strategy around these changes. The report was introduced by Cllr Carlin, Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters & Planning. The Director of Placemaking and Housing was also present, along with the Head of Building Compliance. The report was introduced as set out in the additional report pack at pages 13 to 40. The following arose as part of the discussion of this report:

a.    The Committee noted some concerns after reading the report and sought assurances around whether all of the safety issued had been addressed, particularly following the recent fire at Kenneth Robbins House. The Committee requested clarification as to whether the eight medium priority actions relating to fire safety had been addressed. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that the building safety requirements were not to only in relation to fire safety . The Cabinet Member commented that the outstanding fire safety actions were all categorised as medium risk and would be addressed as part of the major works programme starting at the end of the year. Officers clarified that the report referenced Kenneth Robins House as it was the pilot building for the pilot building safety case. The report was in response to a previous action on building safety cases and was not about the recent fire.

b.    In relation to the fire at Kenneth Robins House, the Cabinet Member and officers gave firm reassurances to the Committee that the building performed as well as it was expected to perform, with its stay put policy in place, and that all of the fire doors held and the fire was contained in the flat it started in. A meeting was held with residents and the Borough Commander of the fire brigade, during this meeting the Borough Commander assured residents that Kenneth Robbins House was safe.

c.    The Committee raised concerns about a report released by the regulator for social housing that noted that Haringey had failed to complete a large number of remedial actions and sought assurances that there was sufficient staffing resources in the team to address this. In response, the Director advised that the Council had referred itself to the regulator and would be meeting monthly with the regulator to work through the actions identified until the notice was lifted. The Cabinet Member advised that some of the actions would be long term in nature and that strong mitigations would be put in place in the interim. In relation to staffing resources, the Director advised that he was building up the staffing resources within the building compliance team and that this was one of the tasks that had arisen following the transfer of housing services in-house. The Director commented that every local authority and housing association would also be looking to recruit additional staff in this area because of the additional requirements that were anticipated by the upcoming changes to the Building Safety Act. It was noted that the government had still not been able to give clear assurances about what the exact regulatory changes would be.

d.    The Chair raised concerns that he didn’t believe the Council had the capacity, money or the skills to meet the anticipated requirements, particularly in light of the fact that we would be competing with every other housing organisation in the country. The Chair commented that he was concerned that the Council was setting itself up for failure. In response, officers acknowledged that there were challenges but assured Members that they were doing all they could to prepare for the changes. The Council had already procured a system to upload all of the building safety cases when they were in place. The Director also advised that he would be utilising external expertise where this was required.

e.    The Committee agreed that a follow-up report on the Building Safety Act and progress in producing the building safety cases, would come back to the Housing, Planning and Development Scrutiny Panel. The Director agreed to discuss the timeframe for a follow-up report with the Chair of the Housing, Planning and Development Scrutiny Panel at the next agenda setting meeting. (Action: Clerk).

f.     The Committee noted that the requirements include having an approved resident engagement strategy in place and questioned whether this was in place. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that this was a regulatory requirement and would be in place as and when the Council was required to do so. A Building Safety Strategy report would be going to Cabinet shortly, along with an Improvement Plan and a Damp & Mould Policy. The Improvement Plan would set out how the Council would work with its residents and that some elements of the plan would involve co-design with residents.

RESOLVED

Noted.