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Housing association to carry out most intrusive fire risk assessments possible
Metropolitan Thames Valley will conduct destructive, Type 4 assessments of some of its homes.
The 57,000-home association, formed through the October merger of Metropolitan and Thames Valley, told Inside Housing it would carry out Type 4 assessments on sheltered accommodation, extra care schemes and all buildings with a ‘stay put’ policy in case of fire.
Almost every high-rise building in the UK has a ‘stay put’ policy. However, this strategy has come under heavy scrutiny since the Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people, many of whom were told by firefighters to stay in their flats.
There are four types of fire risk assessment:
- Type 1 assessments look only at the common parts of the building
- Type 2 assessments look at the same parts but are also ‘destructive’, meaning they involve opening up some of the building to inspect the construction.
- Type 3 assessments look at individual flats, as well as the common parts, but are not destructive.
- Type 4 assessments look at the same areas as Type 3 assessments and are destructive.
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Mark Everard, executive director of property at Metropolitan Thames Valley, said: “Following the Grenfell tragedy, alongside other organisations in the sector, we carried out an in-depth review of our buildings and procedures, contractor management and risk assessments.
“Following that review, we made a significant investment last year in making Metropolitan stock both safer and better to live in. This investment included the implementation of a more extensive fire risk assessment policy, increasing the frequency and the scope of our fire risk assessments.”
According to Mr Everard, Metropolitan made Type 3 assessments standard in buildings with communal areas in October 2017, after the review.
It has now introduced the policy for Type 4 assessments, which was planned before the merger with Thames Valley, but will cover that association’s former stock, as well as legacy Metropolitan housing.
Metropolitan Thames Valley has launched a new £100m framework for procuring all its fire safety work.
According to a notice posted in the Official Journal of the European Union, this includes finding assessors to carry out and review Type 3 and 4 fire risk assessments of stock in the group.
The group clarified in the notice that any individual or organisation who bids to do this cannot bid for the other parts of the framework, which include carrying out any work identified in fire risk assessments, and maintaining and repairing fire safety equipment such as fire alarms and fire extinguishers
