Building Safety Webinar: Are you fit for today and fit for tomorrow?

In this on-demand webinar recorded on the 14th July 2022, Lee Woods, Operations Director at Pennington Choices, explores the importance of combining your approach to property compliance and building safety to stay compliant with the latest fire and building safety legislation. 

Click the video to watch the on-demand webinar, or read the transcript below:

Ready to learn more about the Building Safety Act 2022? Download our eBook to find out everything you need to know in just 5 minutes:

Video transcript

You can download the presentation slides here.

Good morning. My name is Lee Woods from Pennington Choices. Today, we're going to talk about building safety and whether the sector is fit for today, and indeed fit for tomorrow. And really, does the social housing sector need to mind the gap.

In terms of Pennington Choices , we're compliance and building safety experts both in terms of consultancy, but also technical delivery on the ground, and we specialise in social housing. We've done over 125 health checks on the big six areas of compliance and/or gap analysis work on building safety for many housing providers. We provide training and advice to board leaders, operators, and we've worked very, very closely over the last four or five, six years with the regulator of social housing. We understand and recognise the common failings, and we know what full compliance looks like and how to get there.

So we're going to share some of our lessons with you through this presentation. We've also developed and delivered many roadmaps to recovery with housing clients. And again, it's the 'so what if you do have a problem'? How do you go about fixing it. And we've also helped providers implement systems and processes to prepare for and address the new legislative requirements. As we all know, there's a tonne of that stuff coming down the track as we speak.

In terms of compliance, we recently carried out a survey in conjunction with Inside Housing where we asked 128 social housing landlords the following questions:

• Is the sector keeping tenants safe in their homes today?
• Is the sector prepared for the future in order to keep their tenants safe?

And what are the results showing us? Well,  they're showing us that there are still some major gaps in safety compliance. And we're going to explore why. Really the today question is about property compliance and the big six, and the future question is about the pending legislation around the Fire Safety Act, Fire Safety Regulations, Building Safety Act, etc.

So what did the results tell us at a very high level? Well, we had 128 organisations respond. And from that there was a focus on the big six and 42% of all those respondents said that fire safety and managing fire safety was their biggest challenge. To be honest, that didn't surprise us because the risks that are associated with device safety and building safety now are bigger than ever, and they are a significant challenge for organisations to address. Interestingly, 14% of the respondents said their board had no oversight. And for a sector of our size and our scale, that's a concern. So I would challenge anybody listening to this, to see and check and validate that their board has oversight on both property compliance and on what's coming down the track. 

Then 68% of organisations are operating on a five year EICR programme with 32% not. The interesting fact behind that, of course, is that currently, there is consultation out to mandate five year EICR checks in the social housing sector. So they align to the private sector, and that will include lease holders living in social housing blocks. So the 32% of the landlords that are not currently in that space, have got some work to do.

Okay, and then when we ask the question, 'what percentage of landlords are operating at 100% compliance?' and 'what percentage are operating at less than 100% compliance?'. The numbers around those achieving less than 100% compliance were quite concerning. And it demonstrates that there's still a big gap. You guys can read these numbers on the screens. But you know, 78% of landlords suggesting that they are not achieving 100% on gas safety is a concern for the sector.

When we then talked about the Building Safety Act and the emerging legislation, we asked the question around how many landlords knew which of their buildings will be in scope. And 46% at the time said they did not know which buildings will fall in scope. Now the emerging legislation around building safety and the Fire Safety Regulations 2022 offer a lot more clarity on this now, and we'll cover the detail of what is in scope and out of scope a little bit later. The other issue here was that 31% of boards and leaders, have a detailed understanding of the duties, but 69% did not. So two thirds of the sector were effectively saying "we don't currently understand what's required of us in respect of the new building safety regime." And again, that's a concern given that this is coming fast down the track. And you know, organisations need to be planning, preparing and getting ready for this as we speak.

Ready to learn more about the Building Safety Act 2022? Download our eBook to find out everything you need to know in just 5 minutes:

So, why are large numbers of social landlords failing to operate 100% compliance? Well, the survey with Inside Housing focused on six areas. It focused on IT systems and data management, it focused on lack of governance oversight, and an understanding of what is required. There's a real concern in the sector around competence and the recruitment of people with the right technical people and programme management skills. And many said that this was a hard combination to find and I resonate with that. There was the lag effects from COVID-19, tenants' concerns and the supply chain. So we had the whole issue of furloughing staff, and whether or not now contractors have got the resources and the capacity to deliver what social landlords need.

Failure to carry out FRAs and or deliver fire safety works, that's clearly a concern, given the pending legislation, and what's coming down the track and ultimately, around keeping your tenants and residents safe. And then the demand for competent contractors who can deliver fire safety works, and the key there is competent contractors, and lots of contractors are out there delivering fire safety works, who are not competent to do this, to the right with the right skills and to the right level of quality. And then when we look at our own body of evidence, so Pennington Choices, having done, you know, 100 compliance health checks or more, the common themes that we find in our body of evidence very much aligned to the survey results that have come out of the Inside Housing Survey. So again, governance and leadership, this no line of sight or understanding of what is required. This whole concept of policy direction, where is it set from, and often we see it's not set from the top, it's often set bottom up in quite a silo way. Often significant strategic risks are not covered in the relevant policies.

Poor data management, again, that came out of the Inside Housing Survey and the ability to tell a cohesive story and present the evidence, the data and the evidence in a way that's evidence based, as opposed to narrative based. Culture: is it one of reassurance? Or is it one of assurance? So we see a lot of our work, we see narrative based reassurance where people are told that everything is okay. There's lots of narrative to explain the position. But actually, where's the evidence base? Where's the data and the information that absolutely supports what's being said? Lack of reporting on the big six. And this helps create the line of sight where it's in place. But if it's not in place, then it doesn't create that line of sight back through to leaders and boards. And interestingly, around the reporting on the big six, you know, it's never been more important to do so with the new tenant satisfaction measures, which are again, coming down the track from the first of April next year. Landlords are going to be required to present this information and produce this information to the regulator of social housing and to their residents to demonstrate that they are managing compliance effectively.

And then finally, the thing that we see regularly is this whole issue around competence validation. And do organisations have good quality, second and third lines of defence in place to check in balance, that they are achieving the levels of compliance and that it can be evidenced appropriately? Okay, so what does this tell us we've got our own body of evidence, we've got the Inside Housing Survey. And I think what it tells us is unless these common failings, that unless they're addressed, that it will continue prevent landlords from fully complying with both the big six, and it will prevent them from achieving the building regulations of tomorrow. So really, the key message for me here is get your house in order around the property compliance areas of the big six, and address these common strategic failings and make it a strategic priority. If this is not front and centre with your board, it should be and with your leadership team. And fixing these sort of common strategic failings through a roadmap to full compliance will provide the framework necessary to better support the building agenda of tomorrow.

So I think there are common themes in both and addressing them will help both with management and property compliance, but it will also help you in terms of managing and preparing and getting ready for what's coming down the track. And that's what we're going to talk about a little bit more next, because the landscape is changing and it is changing at a ferocious pace for social landlords. The Fire Safety Act, which went through parliament in 2021, will formally come into force on May this year. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations are coming into force in January 2023. and further guidance is to follow. We've got the Building Safety Act 2022/23, and again, that's expected to come in forcing April next year. And then there's the Social Housing Regulations Bill, which is probably the largest piece of change for social housing landlords in probably 10 years.

And what we would say about both the property compliance regime of today, and the changing landscape of tomorrow is combine your approach to both property compliance and building safety and do not have these as separate entities within your organisation because they are ultimately intertwined and interlinked. So it's important that your compliance and building safety teams are working hand in glove because one will follow the other.

So if we look at the Fire Safety Act to begin with, introduced in April 2021, and became law in 2022, and it addresses some of the weaknesses of the current 2005 order, where in our view, the bar was always set too low in terms of what was required of building owners and landlords of buildings. It provides for more stringent measures in multiple occupancy buildings, and it will apply to buildings containing two or more domestic premises. Effectively what the Act has done is strengthen the approach to risk assessment. And risk assessments will therefore have to catch observations and potential risks in respect of the building structure, external walls, including any doors, windows and balconies within those external walls and any common parts. It also expects you now to form a view on risk in relation to all doors between the domestic premises and the common parts. So under the old order, individual flat doors were not considered to be part of the communal parts. Under the new Act, they are now considered to be part of the common parts, and therefore landlords need to assess the risk. This is about observational risk, it's not about intrusive work. And if through the observational risk, risk assessors are concerned about any of these issues, then they should make observations and recommendations within this report within the fire risk assessment report, which effectively should lead to further investigation.

When we look at the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, these are fairly hot off the press. And essentially they will implement the majority of the recommendations that came out of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase one, which required a change in law. So those those recommendations were two or three years ago. And what's now being set out in law and will come into force on the 23rd of January, our requirements of landlords, in respect of their high risk residential buildings, that you now must have building plans floor plans must understand the external wall systems and have those certified you know, you must now do further work around lift, safety, lift, servicing and lift security, and other key firefighting equipment. It talks about the provision of premises information boxes, and wayfinding signage. And for those first four, they will apply to all high risk residential buildings of 18 metres or above. But, in addition to that, landlords with buildings that are 11 metres and above in height, and indeed in some cases just to two residential units, landlords will have to now implement fire door checks and provide fire door information to residents and also very crucially provide fire safety instructions to all residents in all buildings where you have fire risk assessments so that residents understand and know how to evacuate the building in the event of an emergency. Then there is going to be more supporting guidance provided on this later in 2022. However, I'd encourage you to go on to the government's website because there's enough detail in there now setting out what landlords need to do in order to comply.

UK, social housing regulatory bill, big thing that came out of the original Grenfell Inquiry was around residents' voice and making sure that residents have a voice, have an input, and we can see that quite a lot has happened in respect of the Social Housing Regulatory Bill. So the tenant satisfaction measures are a first stage to landlords, both demonstrated to their residents and to their boards and to the regulator, that the the interests of tenants are being taken account of and the measures are in place to ensure that the residents voice is being heard. We at Pennington Choices worked closely with the regulator of social housing on the on the specific property compliance measures. And then there were some other issues around building safety and resident safety coming into place. I've got the mandatory smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and which will come into force on the first of the 10. Most social landlords will already have these in place in their properties. But if they don't have them in place, then from the first of October onwards, there's a requirement to have them in place in all your residential properties. And also, there's consultation at the moment on mandating EICR checks every five years, including any lease holders in social housing blocks to align to the private sector. And then there's this whole concept of resident engagement around building safety, etc.

The other thing is around the regulatory approach. So the regulator of social housing has taken a reactive approach to consumer regulation in the past, but he's now going to flip that on its head and take a much more proactive approach. And it will explicitly include safety. There's also strength and enforcement powers for the regulator of social housing.

And then this supporting development of guidance on engaging residents on safety issues. So lots in the social housing regulations bill that landlords have to again, consider. And really, landlords need a cohesive plan around these various strands of legislation, the Fire Safety Act, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations, and the Social Housing Regulatory Bill, in order to have a systematic approach to addressing all the issues that are coming out of it.

Then finally, we'll look at the Building Safety Act and what's in scope. I suspect most of you who are listening to this will know this, but there's no harm in resetting out exactly what the Building Safety Act is suggesting in terms of what's in scope, it will apply to occupied buildings of at least 18 metres in height, or at least seven storeys high, and containing two or more residential units. And it will focus on the design refurbishment and construction requirements, and also apply to care homes and hospitals of the same height. And those accountable for occupied scope, buildings must take all reasonable steps to reduce building safety risks in relation to fire spread, and structural failure.

So again, I know that slide's fairly, fairly high level and headline, and there's a lot of detail in that my final slide will really cover what accountable persons need to consider. And you'll need to consider carrying out an assessment of the building safety risks in and around the building. In other words, you need to understand your buildings, you need key information on your buildings, for instance, floor plans, building plans, measurement of the heights of buildings, etc. You need to build a package of information or in readiness for January and April of next year in order to be able to demonstrate to the building regulator that 'I understand my buildings, I understand what's in them, I understand what we need to do to mitigate any risks that are identified within those buildings and I have a plan over time for how I am going to mitigate those risks' because I don't think there's an expectation that you are going to de-risk your buildings by January or April of next year. But there is an expectation that you will understand what those risks are and you will understand how you are going to mitigate and reduce those risks over time, and how you are going to control those risks while those risks exist.

You need to register your buildings and apply for a building assessment certificate when directed by the building safety regulator. You need to carry out an assessment of those building risks, etc. Prepare safety cases and submit safety case reports to the building safety regulator. And, you know, keep that golden thread of information and finally produce your residence engagement strategy.

So there's a lot in this that you need to think about for those buildings that are in scope, those buildings that are 18 metres or above or those buildings that are 11 metres and above that have requirements under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations. And indeed, you need to think morally about well, the buildings that are not 11 metres or 18 metres, what are we going to do vis-à-vis fire safety and building safety for residents in those buildings. Because there is a danger here for me that the highest risk buildings will have the greatest scrutiny and effectively they'll become the safer buildings. And the buildings that are not covered by this legislation may get less attention and may end up having more significant risk attached to those. So landlords morally will have to think about am I going to apply the principles of the fire safety regulations and the Building Safety Act to all my stock? Or am I just going to apply it to those that fall under the requirements of the legislation? And I suspect that's going to be a decision for you and your boards to consider based on the scale and scope of what you're trying to tackle really.

So what can we do at Pennington choices to help with this? Well, we are experts in relation to property compliance having done over 100 worked with 100 organisations looking at their approach to compliance. We have developed roadmaps to full recovery. We also are doing a lot of work at the moment on Building Safety Gap Analysis. And that is very practical, where we go into buildings with landlords and doing a forensic analysis of those buildings. And we are building up the body of information that landlords need for their building safety cases and their golden thread of information. So things like, you know, floor plans, building plans, heights of buildings, compartmentation surveys with all the line drawings, schedules of defects, etc. You know, if that's the type of thing you're needing for your buildings, then we can help with that. and the building safety roadmap.

We also provide project management and interim support. So if you need some support around the whole building safety and fire safety agenda, then we've either got consultants who can support you with that, or we can provide interim support that can plug into your organisation to help you navigate this journey.