FOCUS
History lessons
From March 2018 to 2019, the fire and rescue services attended6
29,570 dwelling fires, 820
of which were in purpose built, high rise (ten or more storeys high) flats, which is a 3% increase compared to the previous year (800). It also equates to more than two fires a day in properties of this type. The recent first phase report from Grenfell inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick7
has
highlighted that there were many ways the horrific incident could have been prevented. The public inquiry, which aimed to provide greater clarity on the events of the evening of 14 June 2017, suggested that having a fully functioning sprinkler system – as well as other changes to the structure of the building – would have had a significant impact on containing the fire.
Taking back control
Landlords need to take back control of fire safety compliance to ensure transparency, oversight and accountability. If records are entirely held by a contractor, as a landlord can you be sure you are seeing an entirely accurate picture? And what happens if you move to another contractor – will the information be passed on in a way that the new company can seamlessly integrate with? This all goes back to Dame Judith’s ‘golden thread’ of information that needs to be maintained throughout property maintenance, to ensure the safety of all residents. A holistic
48 APRIL 2020
www.frmjournal.com
view of what equipment exists, what work needs to be done, what work hasn’t been done and what work is upcoming is essential if landlords are going to take back control. And having a live and digestible approach would be hugely beneficial to landlords. Quite simply, keeping records is not the same as compliance. Paper records are antiquated and prone to loss, damage, illegibility and mistakes – but even digital records can be useless if not executed correctly. The fact that a form has been created to show a piece of work has been done does not necessarily mean it has actually been done. Is there a GPS and time stamp that proves the contractor was actually at that location? Even if the information is correct, an isolated
digital record or an Excel spreadsheet held by a contractor can also take significant resources (multiple full time members of staff) to monitor and draw insights from, which can mean it takes months before issues are spotted. Clearly, there is a significant hole for mistakes to fall into – there is no digital audit trail. Only by creating a dashboard, so that compliance performance can be monitored and contractors can be held to account at any time, will landlords succeed.
A legacy
Dame Judith’s report contained targeted recommendations on high rise residential
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
