Industry Viewfinder: Revisiting the approach to Fire Safety in Social Housing


Following these updates at the start of this year, what options best suit your actions on the following updates?” g Actioned prior to updated legislation g Actioned because of legislation g Yet to action g Not applicable to my properties


Lastly, of those that work buildings of any size, 77% were already displaying fire safety instructions prior to the legislation, with 16% doing so because of it and 7% yet to do so, and 71% were already providing information about fire doors, with 22% having done so because of it and 7% yet to do so. Overall, though the vast majority of housing professionals are meeting


these new standards, and many were already meeting them prior to their introduction, the level of respondents who cannot – or will not – meet these requirements are far too high.


PROBLEM ASSESSMENT HAS THE SECTOR PROGRESSED? While from these results when taken in isolation it seems as though a minority of housing professionals continue to resist change – change that is proven to save lives – Housing Management & Maintenance also looked into other areas where progress may have been made. As such, beyond the new measures introduced aſter the last study, Housing


Management & Maintenance have also produced some data on whether this year’s respondents show a better adoption of wider fire safety measures compared with our last study. When asked how oſten our respondents (or their organisations) conducted


fire safety assessments on their properties, for example, progress has been made – with the average frequency almost tripling to every four months (last year’s average being at 11.5 months). 14% (+7% from last year’s study) reported that fire risk assessments are conducted every month, followed by 4% every three months (equal to last year), 8% every six (-4%), 58% every year (-1%), 11% every two years or more (-2%), and shockingly 4% still never conduct fire safety assessments, just as in the last study. Tough less prominently, the number of assessments receiving a pass


has also improved a little. 32% of our respondents reported that an average of 100% of these assessment pass (+13%), 36% passed around 90% of the time (+6%), 17% passed between 70-80% of the time (+15%), 5% passed between 40-60% of the time (-2%), 3% between 10-30% of the time (-4%), and 5% never (the same as last year). When it came to the average length of failings to be addressed, 28%


said failed assessments would take a day to remediate (up a significant 20%), with 23% a week (-17%), 27% a month (-3%), 13% three months (-2%), 2% six months (-4%), and a small, yet still far too high 4% never being addressed (+4%).


How often do you or your association/organisation conduct fire risk assessments on each property under your company’s remit?


Tere was some improvement seen in the understanding of fire safety


regulations, though three quarters still do not completely understand them. 2% reported that they do not understand fire safety regulations at all (+2%), with 5% slightly understanding them (+0%), 16% partially (-8%), 54% mainly (+0%), and an improved 24% completely (+7%). Tis year, we also asked respondents how they believe other areas of the


sector have improved – or not – in terms of fire safety over the last five years. When it came to the housing that our respondents had worked on, 15% said their fire safety had vastly improved, with 39% saying it had improved, 40% slightly improved, 4% slightly worsened, 1% worsened, and 1% vastly worsened. Similarly, when considering how the private rented sector has improved its fire safety over the last five years, 15% said it had vastly improved, 32% improved, 47% slightly improved, 4% slightly worsened, 3% worsened, and none vastly worsened. 15% believed social housing as a whole has vastly improved in this area, followed by 32% improved, 47% slightly improved, 5% slightly


28 | HMMAugust/September 2023 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


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