Correspondence

Letter to small RPs who responded with a nil return to our first fire safety remediation survey (accessible version)

Published 28 November 2023

Applies to England and Northern Ireland

Dear Chief Executive

Fire safety remediation survey for 11 metre plus buildings

Thank you for responding to the first fire safety remediation survey, which opened on 23 August.

We know that the survey timescales were challenging for the introduction of a new data collection. This reflects the importance of this issue, which was outlined in Parliament in a Building Safety Update by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning on 16 November 2023. The Minister set out that that registered providers will now be expected to provide quarterly updates on progress on Fire safety remediation for all 11 metre plus buildings (including those over 18 metres). The Minister also stated that future publications by his department will include data on a provider-by-provider basis. 

On 1 December 2023, a survey is being issued to all large registered providers and small providers who reported responsibility for buildings 11 metres or over in the first survey. As a small registered provider, given your declaration in the first survey that you do not have responsibility for any buildings of 11 metres or over, you will not be issued with a second survey.

However, if you have identified that your first return was incorrect and have subsequently identified a building within scope or in the future you do take responsibility for any 11 metre plus buildings, you should inform the regulator as soon as possible, by mailing enquiries@rsh.gov.uk.

We have published a report on our findings from the first Fire Safety remediation survey, which shows:

• Fire risk assessments have been undertaken on 98% of all buildings reported.
• The vast majority of social landlords have plans in place to address life critical fire safety (LCFS) defects identified across the relevant buildings.
• Remediation work is completed or due to be completed in the next five years for 71% of 11-18 metre buildings and 84% of 18 metre plus buildings assessed as having an external wall system (EWS) related LCFS defect.

The report highlights the responsibility of Boards and councillors to understand landlords’ legal obligations in relation to managing the safety of buildings, seek assurance that they are being met, and address identified issues promptly.

I would like to remind you of your responsibility to ensure contact information held on the NROSH+ website is up to date. This is important because we use this information to contact your organisation on regulatory matters. Contact details can be updated at https://nroshplus.regulatorofsocialhousing.org.uk/.

If you have any further queries about the survey, please email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk with ‘Fire safety remediation survey’ as the subject.

Thank you for your co-operation on this very important issue.

Yours faithfully

Jonathan Walters
Deputy Chief Executive