Inside Housing reported on the calls from RKBC, with the council stating that ‘more comprehensive legislation’ is required to allow councils to undertake building checks ‘in line with recommendations made’ by the first phase report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry – and in turn ensure that private buildings ‘are held to the same standards as social housing’. RKBC recently agreed a new corporate fire safety policy across all departments, with 17 housing projects already being worked on.
Its housing management service is working ‘more closely’ with London Fire Brigade to ensure that landlords with council tenants ‘meet fire safety obligations’, while it is also ‘attempting to become’ a BAFE fire safety register accredited fire risk assessor. RKBC also ‘set out’ how it would respond to the inquiry’s recommendations, specifically in relation to the government’s plans to ‘strengthen enforcement powers to hold building owners to account’ in the Queen’s Speech last month.
The new fire safety policy for RKBC ‘reflects’ BS 9997 introduced last year ‘with the intention of marking out best practice for managing fire risks in a large organisation’, with the council having ‘sought to become early adopters’ of recommendations laid out in Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations and fire safety – it took back control of 6,800 homes from the tenant management organisation previously responsible for them in March 2018.
Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader and lead member for Grenfell, housing and property at RBKC, said: ‘Fire safety is a constantly evolving national issue and we are calling on the government to help ensure all local authorities are properly equipped to respond to changes, including developments from the public inquiry. We want to see more comprehensive legislation to increase the standards in all buildings owned publicly or privately, and additional powers to enforce against this.’