Giving residents a voice when it comes to safety

With invaluable input from consultations with local communities we have developed a Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy for residents, shared owners, and leaseholders of council-owned residential flats and maisonettes.

Although government regulations only apply to high rise buildings, we extended the scope of our strategy to cover all 1,390 blocks of council owned flats across the city.

This important document sets out how we work to keep all our properties safe, and how we inform and involve residents on decisions around building safety. It includes information on things like how we communicate with residents, how often blocks receive safety inspections, who is responsible for identifying and assessing risks, how we listen and respond to any safety concerns, and what we could do better to make you feel safer in your own home.

We started the process by asking residents questions like "do you feel safe and if not why not?" and "do you know how to report safety issues?" We used the responses to produce a Draft Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy which we shared with residents last year, asking for further feedback.

Thanks to your suggestions, we made several improvements including clarifying some terminology and adding in extra details to the document. The final strategy is now due to be published later this month.

A key element of the strategy is to ensure residents have a voice and can be heard, so we have formed a tenants’ Building Safety group to act as a sounding board. The panel provides a platform for residents to discuss safety issues, challenge us on health and safety policies, and raise concerns or questions on behalf of others in the local community. They meet every three months to discuss key issues around building, fire, gas, and electrical safety. If you would like to join the group, please get in touch with our Tenant Engagement team.

For any housing related enquiries, including concerns to do with building or fire safety in a council owned block of flats, please get in touch. Or, you can raise your concerns about:

• Building safety, such as obstructions in communal areas, using the online form to contact your Local Housing Office
• A flat entrance door or a fire door in a communal area by making a report to our repair team
• General fire safety queries by emailing the fire safety team
• Safety concerns within a high rise building by completing our online form to report concerns with a high rise building or sending us an email
• An emergency out of office hours by calling 023 8023 3344