After self-referring earlier in the year, Woking Borough Council has been issued with a regulatory notice by the Regulator for Social Housing.
Relating to fire safety, the notice outlines how the council isn’t able to manage its health and safety responsibilities effectively. This mainly focuses on compliance with new regulations surrounding the installation of carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.
Councillor Ann-Marie Baker, Woking Borough Council’s Leader, responded to the notice by saying:
“There is nothing more important than the safety of our residents, yet this regulatory notice is a stark warning that the council has fallen short in its health and safety duty toward tenants on this occasion.
“I would like to apologise, on behalf of the council, to our housing tenants for failing to deliver the quality of service that is expected. We understand that the notice issued by the Regulatory of Social Housing may cause tenants concern.
“Last year, with the support of council tenants, the council brought the management and maintenance of our social housing back in-house to help improve housing services. It was following this change that we were able to fully understand the issues with the standard of our homes.
“Most significantly, we undertook an extensive programme of fire risk assessments over the spring and summer which identified a significant number of remedial actions are required.
“The council is fully aware of its health and safety responsibility and will work with the regulatory closely to put in place a comprehensive programme to rectify these failures.
“Whilst we have much more to do, the council is determined to make the necessary improvements and is implementing a course of actions which will reassure tenants and the regulators of our commitment to delivering safe homes for our residents.”
The council is developing a ‘robust’ plan to address the issues that were raised in the notice, with action already being taken. This includes:
- Undertaking surveys on some blocks of housing
- Commissioning inspections on all properties where the council doesn’t already have data on detectors and resolving issues that are found
- Instructing fire safety remedial works when there is high risk
- Surveying all emergency lighting in housing blocks
- Beginning loft compartmentation surveys where necessary
- Implementing fire door inspections on all four and five-storey housing blocks, as well as temporary accommodation schemes with shared facilities. These will be done quarterly.
A further solution that is being investigated by the council is adding the Housing Programme to the wider Improvement and Recovery Plan, allowing for increased resident engagement and a 30-year business plan for the Housing Revenue Account.
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