Agenda item

This report sets out our performance in key health and safety areas including gas, electric, water, lifts, asbestos and fire as well as Category 1 Hazards, structural walls, and playgrounds.

The report also provides an overview of H&F response to date to the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 report and sets out the Council’s journey to improve communication and engagement with residents,

Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) highlighted that keeping residents safe in their homes was not only a legal duty but at the heart of what were done. This report set out H&F’s performance in key health and safety areas including gas, electric, water, lifts, asbestos and fire but also Category 1 Hazards, structural walls, and playgrounds.  He remarked that the Residents and Building Safety team had done a lot over the last 3 years, and it was phenomenal for a local authority to get compliance as high as between 98% and 100% and it would continue the journey.

Richard Buckley (Assistant Director, Residents and Buildings Safety) briefed members on the report:

• The Council was the landlord to circa 17,000 homes of which around 12,000 were tenanted.  It was also tasked to ensure the safety of about 1,600 temporary accommodations and 49 high-rise buildings (HRBs).
• A lot had been done under a wider strategy encompassing compliance to the Grenfell Inquiry reports, Building Safety Act, Fire Safety Act, Fire Safety Regulations and Social Housing Regulation Act. The aim was to ensure residents felt confident and safe within their own homes.
• Building safety services were subject to annual accreditation and audits by third parties and internal monthly scrutiny by Cabinet Member and SLT assurance.
• H&F’s responses went above the recommendations in the Grenfell Inquiry reports and changes in legislation pursuant to the incident including physical work (upgrading fire doors, installation of sprinklers and evacuation systems, improvements in fire detection like upgrading fuse boxes and lighting) and soft engagement work with fire brigade and residents (training provided to H&F staff and contractors, testing home appliances, creation of personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP), advice letters  and leaflets about the risk of e-bikes, posters on lifts banning the entry of e-bikes and e-scooters).

James Berry (Station Commander, Hammersmith Fire Station) outlined the background of developing “Make Every Contact Count” package with colleagues in Adult Social Care and Safeguarding teams to prevent fire deaths. Through this package, stakeholders might set foot on homes that were not visited and checked for 6 months, mitigate any fire risks detected and improve safeguarding for the residents therein. An online training package, lasted for about an hour, was available to frontline officers and H&F’s contractors/subcontractors who could assume accountability and meet the required standards. The package was developed some two years ago and might require improvements to the core skills. 

James Berry further said that the Fire Brigade was also involved in the provisions of the evacuation systems, wet risers and Lithium-ion battery project.  On the latter, he noted the Lithium-ion market was moving ahead of the technology to ensure their safety. To reduce the fire risk up the HRBs, the Fire Brigade was considering requiring all batteries in a tower block be charged on the ground floor via commercially viable charging facilities. Meanwhile, educational events on safe use of the battery were held in Shepherd’s Bush Green and Hammersmith Apollo targeting at gig economy riders. James expressed appreciation on the great working relationship with the Residents and Building Safety team, in particular their fantastic support when the last three fatal fires broke out in H&F. In reply to Councillor Adronie Alford, he advised that information on the main fires for the whole of London was available on the Fire Brigade website. 

In response, Richard Shwe confirmed that the online training for “Make Every Contact Count” package had formed part of the contract with the subcontractors. Also for the last 18 months, there had a “Housing Gold” rota, which was linked to the Council’s gold, silver and bronze emergency plans, for senior officers to deal with emergencies alongside their day jobs to make sure residents were safe.  Richard emphasised that building compliance and safety was always on the agenda in all levels of the services.

Florrie Mahon (Chair, Fire, Building Safety and Repairs Working Group) said residents were involved in working groups like the one she was chairing.  The Working Group, meeting six times a year, comprised nine members (eight tenants and one leaseholder) who had experienced previous problems with fires due to the Lithium-ion batteries and hence were quite involved with fire doors. The Working Group produced leaflets on, among other things, sprinkler systems, fire doors and PEEP, explaining how they could help stop/prevent a fire or get out of it safely. Florrie appreciated Council officers’ responses to members’ requests and residents felt needs were included.  

On the Chair’s question about H&F residents being heard or otherwise, Florrie Mahon was confident that almost all of them were.  Apart from her Working Group, there was the Housing Representative Forum and 26 TRAs which represented almost each block of flats in H&F. Once a piece of new information was out, it would be passed on to the estates represented.

Given construction and refurbishment materials were a big part of the Grenfell aftermath, the Chair was concerned about the safeguards in place in H&F to make sure the materials in H&F were safe and fire-proof.  Richard Shwe said colleagues undertaking capital programme had done a lot of work to take out the flammable items out of the HRBs which was one of the compliance requirements under the Building Safety Act.

Councillor Sally Taylor was concerned that one of the estates had received the Council’s letter advising them not to put the e-bikes indoor.  She sought information on the locations that e-bikes were allowed. Richard Shwe noted that the local authority was looking for suitable locations across the borough to put up new bike sheds.  He undertook to brief the housing officer to explain the Council’s plan to the residents.

On Councillor Alford’s question whether e-bikes were allowed in tenants’ and leaseholders’ properties, Richard Shwe said as the Director of Housing, he would ban e-bikes from entering the properties.  However, since the leases as well as tenants’ licences were there some 15 to 20 years ago when e-bikes did not exist, the Housing Service had worked around this technically by banning e-bikes from entering the lift/lift lobby which was the Council’s property.  Meanwhile, legal colleagues were looking to change the lease and tenant’s licence to include the ban according to relevant legislative amendments, if any. The Residents and Building Safety team was also liaising with Planning to look at housing design format to see what could be done.

Responding to Councillor Alford’s further questions, Richard Shwe noted enforcement was recently taken against a case violating the ban reported by the TRA. With the support of the Met Police and colleagues in Adult Social Care, the local authority would present its case at the court hearing to be scheduled. 

The Chair asked the Fire Service’s view on the policy regarding Lithium-ion batteries to be adopted by the Council.  James Benny advised that new lease/tenant licence should ban Lithium-ion batteries from entering the premises.

As there might be something else causing safety concerns next to plastic-backed white goods and Lithium-ion batteries, the Chair expressed concern about civic contract in place to protect residents. Richard Shwe said that the matter, if any, would be taken seriously.  He recalled after the two fatal fires in last summer, the Housing Service was able to work with legal to put this information together within three months to discourage families buying e-bikes. In this connection, Florrie Mahon suggested a clause could be provided in the new leases that they were subject to changes pursuant to major incidents.

Richard Buckley added that with the advancement of battery technology, it would come with a battery management system which shall help prevent the incidents.  Meanwhile, fire engineers were working collectively to give residents pragmatic advice on how to charge the batteries safely.  

Councillor Alford raised safety concerns about smart meters and recalled a personal incident where the smart meter went into flames due to incorrectly wired in and shorted.  Richard Buckley thanked her reflection and outlined the actions taken behind the electrical installation condition report. He agreed to look into the matter to see if they needed to be recalled like other electrical products. James Benny said if it was a trend, the Fire Brigade would raise it to fire investigation.  He suspected it might be isolated incidents caused by low-cost components used by individual manufacturers.   

In response to Councillor Alford’s concern, Richard Buckley said that electrical safety was not 100%. As part of H&F service improvement and in line with the industry best practice and complying the Social Housing Act 2023, the standard was moved from 10-year to 5-year certification. He said that during certification, opportunities had been taken to upgrade the fuse box and increase the numbers of fire detector, as part of the ongoing cycle of continuous improvement.   So far, the local authority had achieved 97.5% electrical safety as outstanding properties requiring certification was now less than 220.  

Councillor Asif Siddique sought information on the details about the education done after the Grenfell Fire to raise the awareness of the residents in HRBs, including courses, and materials distributed by emails or physically.

James Berry noted that after the incident, there was a huge education push around the H&F area and leaflets were distributed to people living in HRBs. As there were people moving in and out of the Grenfell Tower blocks,  visits had been carrying out by the Fire Services to check the dry and wet riser system, and the red box containing premises information. The crew would also knock on random doors and check residents’ understanding of the fire strategy, the full evacuation procedures and the PEEP, sprinkler and suppression systems. Following the budget cuts, media screens were installed in H&F HRBs to roll out the Council’s website information related to Lithium-ion battery fire and any updates. 

Richard Shwe noted a joint emergency planning and awareness training was held every quarter for about 50 housing officers. The last two quarters were about HRBs and how to work together as a team when there was a fire, involving the police, public health and ambulance.

Councillor Frances Umeh (Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness) said after the Grenfell tragedy, the Council had put in place a fire safety programme which went above and beyond the minimum standards.  The £20 million programme included fire safety checks on all Council properties in particular HRBs, free replacement of appliances and fire doors, distribution of fire safety booklet, housing newsletter and updated information on the website.  A resident group was set up so that their voice on any concerns and issues on fire safety could be heard via the key contact officer.  Councillor Siddique suggested holding regular surgeries with housing/residents’ associations for them to receive continuous learning.

Summing up, the Chair suggested taking forward the following recommendations:

• To hold regular surgeries with residents.
• To build a new clause in future leases to keep up-to-date with new issues of risk and mitigation measures to be taken. 

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report.

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