Better safe than sorry

Backed by the signatures of more than 100 social landlords, Inside Housing’s Safe as Houses campaign reached its grand finale in Downing Street this week.

We delivered our petition to the prime minister’s front door to mark the end of a campaign that has notched up notable success since it was launched in September last year.

The campaign called for improvements to fire and gas safety in social homes. It was prompted by two tragedies in the past two years. In the first, shared owner Elouise Littlewood died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a home she co-owned with housing association Notting Hill and which had been built by Barratt. In the second, six people died in Camberwell tower block Lakanal House after a fire spread rapidly through the building in July last year.

So how has the campaign gone since it was launched and what success has it had? The first big win came when the leader of the House of Commons and deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman agreed to support Safe as Houses.

In November last year the Tenant Services Authority agreed to back one of the key demands and decided to set up a national database of all UK tower blocks and their most recent fire risk assessments.

With 100 landlords now backing the campaign, we have also taken huge strides towards meeting our demand for emergency procedure notices in every corridor of high rises.

Take it to the top

This week, Southwark councillor Ian Wingfield accompanied Inside Housing to Downing Street to hand over the petition and make sure the message is received at the very highest level.

As well as the landlords, we also had a whole host of other interested parties backing the cause, including prominent architect Sam Webb, who investigated the collapse of the Ronan Point tower block in Newham, east London following an explosion in 1968 and Arnold Tarling, a surveyor with 20 years’ experience inspecting public sector housing.

A petition on the Number 10 website, which ran until 28 December 2009, gathered 409 signatures.

Karen Buck, Labour MP for Regent’s Park & Kensington North, who campaigns on housing issues, set up an early day motion backing Safe as Houses on 10 November, which 18 MPs supported. She states: ‘Protecting people against hazards must be the highest duty for government.’
There was also a page set up on Facebook just before Christmas, which gathered 62 members.

There is still one main aim left - to require builders to hardwire carbon monoxide alarms into new homes with gas appliances. The government consulted on whether to change part J of the building regulations at the end of last year, which could see carbon monoxide alarms become mandatory for use with solid fuel appliances.

It is now analysing the responses and will be making an announcement soon - which is why this week’s delivery of the petition is so important.
Landlords have also given the campaign their strong backing.

John Denny, chief executive of Chester & District Housing Trust, says: ‘We have worked with a group of residents who live in our high rise blocks to put together a fire safety leaflet providing tips and advice.

‘Posters highlighting the main safety points are also on each landing area.’

Steve Coffey, chief executive of Liverpool Mutual Homes, has been a major supporter. He sent an email to 250 members of LMH’s staff and 20 partner and contractor organisations urging them to sign up. The entire executive and senior management team of LMH signed up as well.

Mr Tarling states that the campaign has been a ‘good start’ and was reserving judgement on the TSA’s list of tower blocks. ‘The devil will be in the detail,’ he says. ‘I want to see what they are actually proposing. Whether it’s going to be workable or a fudge.’

Mr Wingfield says landlords across the country now need to keep the momentum going. ‘Until these safety issues have been resolved, both financially and procedurally, through the policies adopted by the government and local government there is a risk it could happen again,’ he says.

While the campaign has come to a close, Inside Housing will continue to monitor any government moves to make carbon monoxide alarms compulsory. There’s never room to be complacent on safety so we’ll make the case for health and safety improvements wherever tenants remain at risk.