Lambeth issues fire risk assessments

The landlord is planning to upload all assessments to its website as they are carried out.

Lambeth Living completed the high rise FRAs, which identify fire hazards in a building, at the end of last year and is in the process of finishing the programme for the rest of its properties.

This move is in line with Inside Housing’s recent campaign, Safe as Houses, which called for a national database to be set up listing all the tower blocks in the country and when they were last assessed. The Tenant Services Authority pledged at the start of the year to set such a database up.

The Lambeth ALMO has to decided to produce ‘easy to read’ reports for its tenants and publish any action plans for work required on the internet. Tenants who do not have internet access will be able to see the documents from local area offices.

Terry Gallagher, Lambeth Living’s director of resources, explained the decision was ‘about being transparent’.

‘We would like to reassure residents a lot of work is going on behind the scenes regarding fire safety in conjunction with the fire service,’ he said. 

‘Fire risk assessments are designed to identify potential risks, but we want residents to know that any risk identified will be minimised through the action plan – which they will be able to see for themselves.’

Mr Gallagher also warned tenants need to ensure their blocks do not pose a fire risk.

‘We are again urging residents to take the fire safety message on board and clear all hazards from exit routes,’ he explained. ‘We’re asking them to remove anything which is combustible or is preventing a safe escape.’

All the FRAs currently on the website show not enough has been done to prevent fires of ‘electrical origin’ in any of the blocks.

The ALMO says it is on track to complete the other FRAs by their deadlines, which should mean they are all complete by the end of March 2011.

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