Issue - meetings

The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Communities to submit a report providing an update on how the Council continue to manage fire safety within its housing properties and proposing a sum of approximately £2.7m over the next three years to improve fire safety in the housing properties.

1)    Cabinet NOTED the progress that has been made so far in managing fire risk in housing assets and the ongoing management approach to continuous improvement on fire safety management.

2)    Cabinet APPROVED the portfolio approach to the prioritisation of work and the implementation of the capital spend as identified in Section 6 albeit being subject to change over the 3 year life time of the programme.

Reason for decisions

      i.        The Housing Improvement Plan (HIP), adopted in November 2019, focussed on compliance across all areas of property safety including fire safety. The HIP noted that while the Council has undertaken fire risk assessments over the years, there has been previously no overall plan on how fire precautions will be improved across the purpose built flats. 

    ii.        This proposed plan sets out a ‘direction of travel’ over three years to ensure compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005. This plan also demonstrates the Council’s commitment to deliver significant change to how fire precautions are managed and improved and to be able to communicate this commitment to key stakeholders and regulatory bodies.

KEY DECISION

Councillor Joe Orson, Leader of the Council, introduced the report in the absence of the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Communities.  The purpose of the report was to provide an update on how the Council continues to manage fire safety within its housing properties and propose a capital programme of works over the next three years to improve fire safety in the housing properties.

During discussion the following points were noted:

• All high risk impacts identified by the Fire Risk Assessments had now been addressed;
• Members requested assurance that Tenants would be appropriately communicated with and kept updated and that any communications were appropriate and took into account any special needs of the tenant.  The Corporate Asset Manager confirmed that a communication and engagement plan would be instigated and information would be provided in a variety of mediums included written material, drawings and diagrams.  There would be a person centred approach to ensure that those that required more support were identified and provided with that support and information could be tailored to the needs of the tenant;
• The table in Appendix A contained inaccurate figures, these would be updated as soon as possible and provided to Cabinet and republished on the website.

DECISIONS

1)    Cabinet NOTED the progress that has been made so far in managing fire risk in housing assets and the ongoing management approach to continuous improvement on fire safety management.

2)    Cabinet APPROVED the portfolio approach to the prioritisation of work and the implementation of the capital spend as identified in Section 6 albeit being subject to change over the 3 year life time of the programme.

Reason for decisions

1. The Housing Improvement Plan (HIP), adopted in November 2019, focussed on compliance across all areas of property safety including fire safety. The HIP noted that while the Council has undertaken fire risk assessments over the years, there has been previously no overall plan on how fire precautions will be improved across the purpose built flats. 

2. This proposed plan sets out a ‘direction of travel’ over three years to ensure compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005. This plan also demonstrates the Council’s commitment to deliver significant change to how fire precautions are managed and improved and to be able to communicate this commitment to key stakeholders and regulatory bodies.