Agenda item

Owen Noakes, Home Office Fire Safety Unit, to attend

The Chair invited Charles Loft, Senior Adviser, to introduce the update.

Charles reported that the Fire Safety Act was due to commence in October, bringing fire doors and cladding under the scope of the Fire Safety Order. Work on the Building Risk Review would be coming to an end in December 2021 and so the key question was what the approach to inspection and enforcement would be following this. Officers were working on a protocol between councils and the fire service about joint inspection and enforcement. Implementation of regulations on the findings of the first phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry would follow immediately after the commencement of the Fire Safety Act. Other current issues of significance to highlight were the Building Safety Bill and whether all the requirements this would place on councils and FRSs will be properly funded; and determining a more proportionate to building remediation, thereby potentially reducing costs.

Owen Noakes from the Home Office Fire Safety Unit then took members through the new regulations in relation to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations which followed a public consultation over the summer. The regulations would commence in April 2022 to enable those affected by them to become compliant. They placed legal requirements on Responsible Persons mainly in relation to high rise buildings and would clearly define what constituted a high-rise building. Implementation guidance was being drafted to address cross-over with the Fire Safety Act requirements and would be available later in 2021. Owen then briefly ran through the specific measures contained in the new regulations.

Charles added that following commencement of the regulations, FRSs would start receiving information, mainly from Responsible Persons on buildings over 18m -  plans, evacuation plans, details of external walls etc. For buildings over 11m information would be required on fire door checks, wayfinding etc.; and on all multi-occupancy residential buildings, fire safety information would need to be provided to residents. FRSs would need to consider carefully how they incorporated these new requirements into their inspection and enforcement plans.

Members comments and questions:

·         Following the New Providence Wharf fire, it was clear that balconies as well as external walls needed to be in scope for the new regulations. Was this the case? Charles said that there was previously uncertainty around whether external balconies fell within building regulations, but this had now been clarified under the Fire Safety Act. Having combustible material on balconies was now equivalent to having it on external wall systems - but only on buildings over 18m.

·         Concern was expressed about who would ensure that Responsible Persons, and the contractors they might employ, were qualified to do the various checks? Charles said that competency is covered in the revised Fire Safety Order. The Building Safety Bill also contained requirements around Responsible Persons and competency to carry out work, which would complement the Fire Safety Order.

·         Members requested that a link to the new regulations be sent out? Charles agreed to circulate the summary document.

·         Concern was expressed about lifts, and the fact that the regulations would only apply to firefighter lifts and not those used by residents in blocks of flats. Would there be an assured quality scheme for those maintaining and inspecting lifts? Charles said that Responsible Persons would be required to carry out monthly checks on firefighter lifts and alert FRS’s if they weren’t working properly; but this wouldn’t apply to residential lifts.

·         Members raised the issue of office blocks being converted to residential units by speculative developers under Permitted Development Rights. They argued strongly that this process needed to be regulated much more stringentely for the safety of residents. Charles said that permitted development is something that the LGA also had serious concerns about and continued to raise with Government. The new Secretary of State is reviewing planning reforms so there should be more opportunity to continue to push this point.

Decision:

Fire Commission noted the update.