FOCUS Management process
residents protected from its dangers, full stop. The approach is not prescribed. There is intent behind this, naturally. We now know from Dame Judith and Sir Martin’s reports that building management – including the testing and maintenance of crucial safety equipment – has been neglected for far too long. We also know that this has occurred within
the context of a sector overwhelmed by confusing rules and regulations, which have not been properly aligned, understood or enforced. Focusing on outcomes and using that change of focus to prompt innovation and thought ‘outside the box’ is the only way to escape such dangerous imprisonment and move on.
Types of innovation
Of course, asking for outcomes and actually generating them are two very different things. It’s even harder for those operating within a regulatory system that has already been described as largely unfit for purpose, because by definition the ‘tried and trusted’ and long established routes have failed. The sector has to reinvent itself and its approaches to a very great extent.
One guiding principle that comes from the
inquiry’s first phase report is that reliable testing and certification of building materials and equipment – and assurance that these are fit for purpose throughout the lifecycle
32 MAY 2020
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of the building – are required. These issues will come under much greater scrutiny in phase two. This generates an interesting question,
which is: to what extent do landlords and building managers actually know what assets they have and their responsibilities in relation to those assets? Also, does their knowledge extend to the number of buildings they own or administer, and do they know what they are responsible for, right down to the last fire door or smoke alarm? Because, post Grenfell, they absolutely need the latter degree of understanding. Turning now to the responsibilities,
how are these accounted for? The average housing association administers hundreds or thousands of properties. In an outcomes based system, they are going to require information about every fire alarm, every fire door and every safety system. They will have to verify when each of those items was installed, whether it needs servicing and when it is due for replacement. That’s a big ask, particularly of major social landlords; but in an outcomes based system, they just have to do it – no matter how. Fortunately, we live in a technological age and Grenfell has already inspired some innovative responses in the form of software and asset tracking and monitoring systems4 seems likely that the growing Internet of Things,
. It
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