Agenda item

Report of the Director for  Placemaking and Housing. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning(Deputy Leader).

This report provides the annual assurance statement on the Housing Service’s compliance position against six main compliance areas (gas, electric, fire safety, asbestos, legionella and lifts) as confirmed to Cabinet on 18.4.23 in the report ‘Housing Services Improvement Plan and Compliance Assurance Statement’.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning (Deputy Leader) introduced the report which provided the annual assurance statement on the Housing Service’s position against the ‘big six’ compliance areas (gas, electric, fire safety, asbestos, legionella and lifts) as set out to Cabinet on 18 April 2023 in the report ‘Housing Services Improvement Plan and Compliance Assurance Statement’.

It was noted that one of the key priorities of the Housing Improvement Plan approved by Cabinet in April 2023 was improved compliance and carrying out an internal audit of these compliance indicators on a regular basis.

The Council’s auditors Mazars had carried out an audit of the service’s compliance, reporting its performance against these indicators in May 2024.

The report further provided a summary of the outcome of this audit. 

In response to questions from Cllr Das Neves, Cllr Emery and Cllr Mason, the following information was provided.

-       Regarding work with the regulator on fire safety improvements, it was noted that the Council had completed nine out of the ten undertakings agreed with the regulator. There was only one left which was due to be completed by December. Also, progress had been fully demonstrated through presentation of the work streams set out and advancements within these outlined.

-       In relation to the level of higher risk fire actions, at the time of self-referral, there were previously over 4000 and this was now reduced down to 1000.This number was now expected to be closed off by December, subject to contractors performing on their expected contract performance to complete this.

-       Referring to the percentage fire remedial actions closed in target at 24%, this was part of the reason that the Council housing team were working with the regulator to catch up on the backlog of actions that were outside of the timescale and part of ongoing dialogue with the regulator.

-       Regarding having spot checks on logging remedial actions since the Mazars report was published, this was not required, and the reporting percentages were explained and variances specifically attributed to an anomaly of 1% that would be due to the timing of when Mazars looked into the figures in the report at a specific time.

-       With regards to the plans in place to do personal evacuation plans for all people with disabilities, it was noted that from a housing perspective, the Council had put in place a Building Safety Strategy, and the Cabinet Member offered to meet with residents to alleviate any fears or concerns they may have.  It was noted that there was a recommendation put forward in part one of the Grenfell reports on this matter and that this had been put forward again but there was a need to wait and see what further national recommendations came forward. However, the Council were currently writing to all residents in all high-rise blocks to establish whether or not they were willing to share and let the Council know if they have any vulnerability or mobility issues. Following this activity, the Council would undertake what was called a person centric fire risk assessment. This was explained to be slightly different to PEEP which was a personal emergency evacuation plan and which happened in commercial buildings where there was firewall and where there were fire wardens on site during the hours that the building's occupied. It was further explained that a PEEP was really difficult to implement in a residential building where there was no permanent on-site staff because there would need to be somebody delegated to help that person out the building. This was not possible to do in residential building or in the general needs setting. The Council would of course comply with whatever regulations come out in the future but at the moment the Council team, were doing everything they could to engage with residents in the borough’s high-rise blocks and undertake person centred fire risk assessments.

RESOLVED:

To note the report and the improvements being made to provide

further assurance in future.

Reasons for decision

The purpose of this report is to provide Cabinet and Council tenants and

leaseholders with the assurance and confidence that the Housing Service’s

arrangements for monitoring the ‘big six’ compliance areas are robust and are.

subject to ongoing review and improvement.

Alternative options considered.

Not applicable.