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Landlords should consider installing evacuation alarms in all high-rise blocks, says social housing fire safety group
Landlords should consider installing evacuation alert systems in high-rise buildings to alert tenants when stay put is no longer a viable option, a group set up to improve fire safety and resident engagement in social housing blocks has said.
A report published today by the government-commissioned Social Sector (Building Safety) Engagement Best Practice Group (SSEBPG) said that all housing providers should consider as part of their fire risk assessments and safety cases whether to retrofit a BS 8629 evacuation alert system into high-rise or high-risk blocks.
An evacuation alert system is an alarm throughout a building that can be triggered by fire and rescue services when the incident commander believes stay put is no longer a viable option and that residents should try and escape the block. BS 8629 is a new British standard for this type of system.
The calls for landlords to consider these systems come from the SSEBPG, a group that was launched in March 2019 with the aim of testing and piloting schemes directed at improving tenant engagement over fire safety.
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The group is made up of eight social landlords and eight resident members based across the country. The landlords involved are: Clarion, Phoenix, Poole Housing Partnership, Optivo, Sheffield City Council, CHP, Stockport Homes and Your Homes Newcastle.
In report published yesterday the call for social landlords to consider evacuation alarm systems was one of the key recommendations. It comes after the phase one Grenfell Inquiry report, which looked into the events of the night of the fire, recommended that all high-rise buildings should be equipped with facilities to send an evacuation signal to the whole or a selected part of the block.
The calls for potential retrofitting of evacuation alarms was one of four recommendations put forward by the group. The other recommendations included calls for the National Fire Chiefs Council and other stakeholders to set out a consistent approach when it comes to national fire safety in buildings, particularly around the stay put advice.
It came after a survey of residents found that in most cases only two-thirds of tenants were aware of the stay put policy. It also found that more research needs to be carried out to find the best ways of providing fire safety information to more diverse groups, to ensure that everyone is aware of fire safety information and protocols in a building.
The report also included a recommendation to introduce tougher sanctions against tenants or leaseholders that do not allow landlords access to their properties to fix fire safety issues. The group said that the government should establish stronger sanctions for those that do not provide details of key health and safety requirements within their property which might impact on the safety of their building or do not provide access for the purpose of assessing such compliance.
In addition to the recommendations, the SSEBPG laid out what it thought were the key drivers for successful resident engagement, which included the idea that “one size doesn’t fit all” and engagement needed to be tailored to resident needs and the type of home they live in.
It added that landlords need to take into account different learning styles in disseminating fire safety information, facilitate an open and honest environment for engagement when it came to fire safety information and repeatedly remind residents of the course of action in the event of a fire.
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