LGA Governance


Agenda item

Agenda item

Fire Safety in High Rise Buildings

Minutes:

Mark Norris, Principle Policy Adviser, introduced the item.  Mark’s update included numerous developments since the previous Board meeting, including:

 

·      Progress has been made on remediating buildings with ACM cladding, particularly in the social housing sector, where dangerous cladding is now being removed from around three quarters of buildings.

·      The bigger, outstanding issue however is with private sector buildings, and Government has made a number of announcements on this since the last meeting. The Secretary of State has announced changes to operating guidance, which will come into effect in a couple of weeks and will aid local authorities in taking enforcement action against owners who are not taking off cladding as fast as they need to.

·      In the same statement, the Secretary of State also said that where councils want to take action to remove cladding themselves (given that they already have powers to strip cladding off), MHCLG will make money available to support this, although councils will have to make a case for funding on a case by case basis.

·      Significant progress had been made on the indemnity insurance for the joint inspection team, though further work was needed to finalise the funding and indemnity agreement with MHCLG. Once this is in effect the team will be better placed to go and advise authorities; a lead officer is now in post and there is a list of local authorities the team is expecting to talk to.

·      The ban on combustible cladding came into effect on 21 December 2019.

·      The Government’s implementation plan for the Dame Judith Hackett proposals has been published. The LGA is heavily involved in discussing with this with MHCLG, and there will be a consultation, so there will be further opportunities to influence this.

·      The LGA has been sharing information with authorities about possible risks relating to buildings with concrete roofs, following the collapse of a concrete roof at a school in 2018. The speed between the issue being noticed and the roof collapsing was a particular concern.

 

Following the update, members discussed the Approved Document B consultation, which seeks views on whether the scope should be expanded. Members discussed that there is a case for looking at lower buildings with vulnerable residents. The Chair agreed with this point, and stated that his area has lots of buildings that are at a lower level – hotels for example – where lots of people reside.  The Chair also made the note that managers of these buildings often test the fire alarm at the wrong time, for example in the middle of the day when the buildings are less busy than they would be during the night.

 

 

Action

 

  1. Members noted the update.

 

Supporting documents: