Industry News
HA in Stoke non-compliant after failing to complete fire safetywork
Standard after an investigation by the social housing regulator uncovered a failure to carry out fire safety work and other problems with the board’s oversight. The Regulator of SocialHousing downgraded
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Empowering People Inspiring Communities (EPIC) to a rating of G3/V2 and announced that the 1,400- home housing association had breached theHome Standard. The downgrade came just eightmonths after it received the highest possible rating of G1/V1 in December last year. The regulator said it acted after identifying
concerns with EPIC’s health and safety compliance. Routine enquiriesmade following the return of its quarterly survey showed that EPIC had been aware it needed to carry out “significant” fire safety work for a number of years but had failed to do so. Fire risk assessments in 2013 and 2018 had
identified that EPIC needed to install fire doors in a significant number of blocks of flats, but this work was not completed. EPIC was also alerted by the fire service in 2019
that new fire doors needed to be installed in its flats, while further fire risk assessments carried out in 2020/21 again highlighted the risk, as well as the need for EPIC to improve its fire alarms and compartmentation. Overall EPIC had almost 500 fire safety remedial actions classified as high risk and overdue. The regulator also found thatmore than 100
domestic properties did not have an electrical inspection within the past 10 years, while EPIC had also not carried out asbestos surveys for a number of properties. EPIC was now completing the fire remediation work, but was found to have breached theHome
small housing association has been given a non-compliant governance rating and was found to have breached theHome
EPIC had been aware it needed to carry out “significant” fire safetywork for a number of years but had failed to do so
Standard due to “the seriousness of the issues, the durations for which tenants were potentially exposed to risk, and the number of tenants potentially affected”. The regulator also said it downgraded EPIC to
G3 as the board has “failed to dprovide challenge to the executive and has notmaintained adequate oversight of its activities, particularly in relation to its health and safety obligations”. The regulator’s judgement said “the fact that it
was the regulator, not EPIC’s board, that discovered the potential breach is an indication of significant weaknesses in EPIC’s business planning, risk management and financial reporting processes”. The regulator also highlighted the board’s recent
decision to approve the purchase of 170 homes from another registered provider when EPIC’s growth strategy only allows for the acquisition of 50 homes per year. The regulator has “appointed external advisors to
provide support and help identify the causes of the presenting issues” and said EPIC has “indicated its commitment to putting things right”. On financial viability, EPIC was downgraded
fromV1 to V2,meaning it is still compliant but “needs tomanagematerial risks to ensure continued compliance”. The risksmainly relate to “significant one-off expenditure relating to fire safety works”, which will impact EPIC’s ability to respond to adverse events until 2023/24.
Housingminister slammed after swerving building safety
HousingMinister Christopher Pincher failed tomention the building safety crisis affecting thousands of leaseholders and landlords across the country when giving a speech to the Chartered Institute ofHousing’s annual conference. The pre-recorded speech was given to
delegates on day one of the housing sector’s biggest conference of the year. InsteadMr Pincher focussed entirely on the new AffordableHomes Programme, decarbonisation and upcoming planning reforms. After the speech, various figures criticised the
Minister for failing tomention building safety or the SocialHousingWhite Paper. Eamon McGoldrick, of the National Federation of
ALMOs, said it was “really strange” there was no reference to building safety as the Fire Safety Bill had recently passed and the Building Safety Bill was currently progressing. KateHenderson, chief executive of the National
Housing Federation, commented on the omission: “It’s the biggest challenge we face. It’s a non- negotiable issue for us. The safety of residents is our number one priority.We didn’t hear enough about the consumer – our residents, who are at the heart of everything we do.” James Prestwich, director of policy and external
affairs at the Chartered Institute ofHousing, said there was a lot in the speech about houses and homes, but not enough about the people living in them. “I would have liked to have heardmore about
16 | HMMOctober/November 2021 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
tenants and about residents across all tenures,” he said. InsteadMr Pincher highlighted the investment
being put into affordable housing by the Government, saying the new AffordableHomes Programme would fund 32,000 new social rent homes, double the number when compared with the last programme.He said consultation on planning reforms had produced 44,000 responses. But speaking after the speech,MrMcGoldrick
criticised the Government for focusing “toomuch on supply and cherry blossoms”, in reference toMr Pincher’s promise that the Government would alter the National Planning Policy Framework to create “cherry blossomstreets” similar to those seen on Champs-Élysées in Paris.
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