Agenda item

Martin Kerrigan, Fire Safety Assurance Manager:

a.    presented an update to Housing Scrutiny Sub-Committee on City of Lincoln Council’s (CoLC’s) position in respect of building safety compliance of Housing stock as detailed at Appendix A to the officer’s report

b.    reported that Lincoln Tenants Panel (LTP) were consulted on the compliance report at its meeting on 11/07/2024; no significant comments were received

c.     advised that the Director of Housing and Investment (DHI) Compliance report gave a summary of the key areas of health and safety compliance in DHI property stock for 2023-2024; each area of compliance was introduced with a short narrative on the current position with any compliance mitigations, and concluded with recommendations and comments on issues and successes

d.    highlighted that following this initial report, members would be updated at more regular intervals, according to their preference, in order to monitor compliance

e.    detailed within the report, information on compliance performance to provide the Director (DHI) with knowledge on our landlord responsibilities over a range of building safety measures to give an oversight and input into the following essential services:

·       Fire Safety

·       Electrical Safety

·       Water Safety (Legionella)

·       Asbestos Management

·       Gas Safety

·       Lifts

f.      stated that Radon would be added to future compliance reports for monitoring purposes

g.    reported that overall performance would be shown by percentage of compliance and Risk Advisory Group (RAG) rated to enable measurement of improvement and keep the Director informed of highlighted risk; to allow for comment, direction and action

h.    identified the top three issues related to building safety compliance:

·       Building Safety Case for each high-rise tower block outstanding and needed completing.

·       Lack of Asbestos Management of low-rise communal areas due to annual re inspections of known Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM’s) outstanding.

·       Fire Door Inspection Programme in relatively early stages.

i.      invited members questions and comments.

Members discussed the content of the report in further detail.

Questions and comments received were responded to by officers as follows:

Question: Could officers provide figures on the number of Council properties containing asbestos?

Response: Asbestos issues were dealt with as and when properties became void. There would be ongoing issues with some properties due to the nature of their age. If there was no reason for asbestos to be disturbed, it could be left in place. Builds post 20^th century would be asbestos free. Officers would report back to members separately with figures on the cost to the Council of the asbestos contract.

Comment: Officers were commended on such an excellent report.

Question: Before properties were purchased were they checked for potential gas issues/asbestos etc?

Response: The seller was asked for any relevant information. A financial assessment of the costs to bring the property up to our standards was carried out prior to purchase. The business case for each property was checked by our Finance team.

Comment: Housing Scrutiny Sub-Committee preferred to receive a six-monthly update report on building safety compliance within its housing stock.

Response: A six-monthly update on building safety compliance would be presented, however, it may be best to focus on three of the 6 ‘key’ areas each six months to give a screen-shot of performance covering the whole year.

RESOLVED that:

1.    Figures on the cost to the Council of the asbestos contract be provided to members under separate cover.

2.    An update on building safety compliance be presented to Housing Scrutiny Sub-Committee on a six monthly basis, focussed on three of the 6 ‘key’ areas each six month period to give an understanding of performance for all safety measures covering the whole year.

3.    The content of the City of Lincoln Council’s housing stock compliance report be noted.