What we’re doing about building safety

• We’re investing about £65million on fire safety over the next five years.
• Our approach is being guided by Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety and first stage of the Grenfell Inquiry.
• We’re also committed to supporting recommendations of the Government’s Draft Building Safety Bill.
• We’re working with our partners at the National Housing Federation (NHF) and The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), plus others, to guide our work.
• We’re also working with other housing providers and organisations in different industries to glean, share and implement best practice.

If you’ve got a bit more time to spare, here’s the full story.

Our new homes

We’re building our new homes to the highest standards, using traditional methods. But we’ve also committed to build at least 25% of new homes using Modern Methods of Construction. And we’re carrying out rigorous safety checks, using only the best and safest of materials.

We all know that we’re in a housing crisis and we need to deliver more high-quality, safe homes. To achieve this, we’ve set ourselves an ambitious target to deliver 1,000 homes a year for the next 10 years. And we’re confident we can meet, and in some cases, exceed, this. Resulting in well-made, sustainable and safe homes.

We’ve also got a dedicated team of people who ensure all areas of our building programme comply with the very latest building safety standards. This is essential. And we’re looking at the how we can exceed them, influenced by the Social Housing White Paper - The Charter for Social Housing Residents and the draft Building Safety Bill.

We’re investing in our existing homes too

It’s not just about new homes though. We’re updating our existing properties, some of which were built many years ago. This is part of our commitment to invest £215 million in our existing homes over the next five years. You can read about here.

We’re working with our customers and partners to keep everyone safe

We’re working hard to keep everyone informed when they visit any of our buildings. So we will make sure that there is accessible information for our customers, their visitors and our partners when they visit a building as to how we’re ensuring the safety of it.

To keep our customers safe and invest more in our existing homes, right now we’re taking a collaborative approach. And we’re working with residents, stakeholders and partners to find ways of enhancing the spirit of community while we undertake safety works and checks.

Like many housing providers, we’re working on safely replacing the cladding on some of our high-rise buildings. We know this work can be disruptive, so by regularly keeping in touch with our customers who might be affected we can put plans in place that supports customers and gives them opportunities to ask the questions they have in a way that suits them best. Whether that’s webinars, visiting their dedicated site manager, or chatting to us on the phone.

We do this together. We bring community investment, housing and development on board to cover all basis. Alongside our team of talented in-house professionals, we’re advised and assisted by expert contractors who specialise in cladding and insultation. By combining in-house skills with outside help we are ensuring we meet the highest safety standards.

Staying up-to-date

We hold ourselves accountable to being 100% compliant and up-to-date with the latest safety regulations. All our assets have fire risk assessments in place, and we regularly carry out reviews of all our high rise buildings to make sure the cladding in place is the safest option. We’re guided by the government and our partners at local authorities and we take and test samples of cladding at the time of fitting to make sure it’s in line with the area’s building control.

Being there for customers

We also think it’s important for us to be contactable and present where appropriate and safe. So in some buildings we have a 24-hour watch, plus a dedicated safety officer to answer any safety-related questions. Everything we do is with our customers in mind, so it’s important that we’re available when they need us.

Want to chat about this? Please get in touch with our Head of Building Safety, Trad Henderson.