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Grenfell council calls for fire safety law changes
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which owned Grenfell Tower, has called on ministers to introduce new laws to step up councils’ fire safety powers.
It said “more comprehensive legislation” is needed to allow councils to carry out building checks in line with recommendations made in phase one of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and to ensure that private buildings are held to the same standards as social housing.
The inquiry report, published in October, included calls for urgent and frequent inspections of fire doors in all blocks of flats.
RBKC’s cabinet agreed a new corporate fire safety policy on Tuesday for adoption across all departments, with the housing management service already working on 17 projects in line with the policy.
These include working more closely with the London Fire Brigade, ensuring landlords of buildings containing council tenants meet fire safety obligations and attempting to become a BAFE Fire Safety Register-accredited fire risk assessor.
The council also set out how it will respond to recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
As part of the fire safety bill put forward by the government as part of the Queen’s speech yesterday, the government said it would look to strengthen enforcement powers to hold building owners to account and managers to account and clarify that Fire Safety Orders covers external wall systems and fire doors.
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Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader and lead member for Grenfell, housing and property at RBKC, said: “Fire safety is a constantly evolving national issue and we are calling on the government to help ensure all local authorities are properly equipped to respond to changes, including developments from the public inquiry.
“We want to see more comprehensive legislation to increase the standards in all buildings owned publicly or privately, and additional powers to enforce against this.”
The council said its new fire safety policy reflects British Standard 9997, introduced by the British Standards Institution in August with the intention of marking out best practice for managing fire risks in a large organisation.
RBKC has said it has “sought to become early adopters” of proposals made by Dame Judith Hackitt in her review of fire safety and building regulations.
Inside Housing revealed last month that some councils had been invited to become Hackitt early adopters.
The council took back control of its 6,800 homes from ALMO Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation in March 2018.
