Regulatory Notice: London Borough of Camden Council (21 July 2023)
Published 21 July 2023
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2023
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RSH Regulatory Notice
- Provider: London Borough of Camden Council
- Regulatory code: 00AG
- Publication date: 21 July 2023
- Reason for publication: Consumer Standards
- Regulatory route: Reactive Engagement
Other providers included in the judgement
None
Regulatory Findings
The regulator has concluded that:
a) London Borough of Camden Council (LB Camden) has breached part 1.2 of the Home Standard; and
b) As a consequence of this breach, there was actual and potential serious detriment to LB Camden’s tenants.
The issue
In May 2023 legal proceedings brought by London Fire Service against LB Camden concluded. The proceedings related to a fire at a large street property conversion in Hampstead in November 2017 where a tenant died. Fire risk assessments in January 2013 and May 2017 identified serious risks in the block, such as combustible wooden cladding on the internal staircase and a lack of proper fire doors on flat entrances. LB Camden had programmed but not yet implemented the required remedial actions. It pleaded guilty to two offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005[footnote 1] and was fined £500,000 plus costs by the court.
Following the conclusion of legal proceedings, the regulator engaged with LB Camden to understand whether the fire safety failings demonstrated by this case had been resolved and whether LB Camden was compliant with our regulatory standards.
Our investigation
As a registered provider, LB Camden is required to comply with the consumer standards, including the Home Standard. The Home Standard requires providers to meet all applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of tenants in their homes.
In respect of fire safety, LB Camden has a statutory duty[footnote 2] to regularly assess, and take precautions to prevent, the risk of fire. The Council has completed fire risk assessments for the 3,200 blocks that require one. However, our investigation found that over 9,000 fire remedial actions are currently overdue, with around 1,500 of them being overdue since 2020. We found that there are just under 400 high-risk actions overdue. Of these, a third should have been completed within 10 days and the remainder in 30 days.
As part of our investigation, LB Camden shared a 2019 internal audit of its approach to fire safety. At the time of the audit there were over 6,000 overdue fire remedial actions and issues relating to the quality and reporting of data were identified. LB Camden has since improved its ability to report on fire remedial actions, put in place new governance arrangements, including a resident fire safety panel, and has completed more than 40,000 actions generated by its current fire risk assessments. However, taking into account the outcome of the fire in 2017, the findings of the internal audit in 2019 and the current fire safety position, the evidence demonstrates a longstanding failure by LB Camden to complete all fire safety remedial actions in a timely manner and to mitigate the risks to tenants in the meantime. As a consequence, tenants have been, and continue to be, exposed to potential harm.
For smoke and carbon monoxide detectors,[footnote 3] LB Camden is required to ensure that at least one smoke alarm is equipped on each storey where there is a room used as living accommodation of a property and that a carbon monoxide detector is equipped in any room containing a fixed combustion appliance. LB Camden reports that more than 9,000 properties do not have a hard-wired smoke alarm installed and just under 4,000 properties do not have a carbon monoxide detector installed.
The regulator considered the case as a potential breach of part 1.2 of the Home Standard and has concluded that LB Camden does not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its responsibilities in relation to its statutory fire safety responsibilities.
Our engagement
LB Camden has a plan in place to complete overdue fire remedial actions and has systems in place to monitor and report on the progress of its plans. It has also set out a programme to install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors in all of the properties currently without them. The regulator will work with LB Camden while it continues to address the issues that have led to this situation, including monitoring how it delivers its programme to complete the outstanding overdue actions. We will continue to keep our use of statutory powers under regular review through our engagement with LB Camden.
Section 198A of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (as amended) states that the regulator’s regulatory and enforcement powers may be used if a registered provider has failed to meet a consumer standard. In order to use regulatory or enforcement powers, as well as the failure to meet the standard, there should also be reasonable grounds to suspect that the failure has resulted in a serious detriment to the provider’s tenants (or potential tenants) or that there is a significant risk that, if no action is taken by the regulator, the failure will result in a serious detriment to the provider’s tenants (or potential tenants).
About our Regulatory Notices
Regulatory notices are issued in response to an event of regulatory importance (for example, a finding of a breach of the Rent Standard or of a consumer standard that has or may cause serious harm) that, in accordance with its obligation to be transparent, the regulator wishes to make public. More detail about Regulatory notices is set out in Regulating the Standards.