Grenfell: Hackney publishes first Fire Risk Assessments for council blocks
Hackney Council is carrying out a fire safety review in the wake of the Grenfell fire. Photograph: Twitter
Hackney Council has published a first batch of 15 Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) for its estate blocks on its website.
In the wake of the Grenfell tragedy, the Town Hall pledged to make public all 1,800 FRAs for its social housing, and has now confirmed this will take place “over the coming weeks and months”.
The assessments, which are carried out by accredited professionals using an industry standard checklist, highlight potential fire safety issues at a property, ranging from the highest priority (PR1) to the lowest (PR5).
PR1s must be resolved within four weeks of the assessment, PR2s within six months, PR3s within a year, and PR4s and PR5s as part of the next refurbishment work on a building.
Residents are free to download the first FRAs, which can be found through an interactive map of the borough on the council’s website.
The ones available now are for properties in Amhurst Road, Wayman Court, Somerford Grove Estate, Middleton Road, Nightingale Road, Princess Crescent, Lynton House, Chadworth House and Bransby House.
A spokesperson for the Town Hall said: “The first FRAs have been published in an easily searchable format, and [the rest] will be uploaded in batches over the coming weeks and months.
“Tenants and leaseholders will be informed on a regular basis as new FRAs are published.”
The council describes the assessments on its website as “an MOT for a building’s fire safety” and a “snapshot of what was found at the time of inspection”.
Not all local authorities have promised to publish them, but in a letter made public today the UK’s Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said: “I will write to representative organisations of local government and other public authorities to make clear my belief that information should be proactively released where possible.”
Denham, who was responding to questions from London Assembly member Sian Berry, also vowed to issue new guidance to force local authorities to put fire safety information in their publication schemes for proactive release.
Berry has faced a battle in Camden to get FRAs published, after checks on cladding and internal works led to the evacuation of four tower blocks in the borough.
She described the Commissioner’s response as a “victory for residents across the country”, adding: “I know how difficult it can be to get information from councils on fire safety. Tenants shouldn’t be forced to argue, fill in forms and appeal just to get basic information about the safety of their homes.
“The advice being issued today in response to my letter makes it clear that councils should be getting on with publishing fire safety information right now. This was recommended by the London Assembly in 2010 after the Lakanal House fire in Southwark, and councils have been far too slow to take up this policy.
“The new guidance outlined by the Commissioner will help everyone who lives in council housing deal with concerns about their safety.”
For more information on FRAs or to search the interactive map, please visit the council’s website at www.hackney.gov.uk/fra
The snail’s pace with which this is happening is extremely frustrating and worrying for tenants. All these fire risk assessments exist already; it’s a legal requirement. Why aren’t they simply all online? As a Liberal I believe in letting people see the information and making their own judgment.
We are now 7 weeks on from the Grenfell fire and the Council has only released 15 risk assessments out of a total of 1800 social housing buildings and they say the rest will be published in “weeks and months”. Moreover none of these 15 released assessments relate to tower blocks.
It’s hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that they must be hiding something. Indeed, we already know that there are numerous issues, because residents report them to us too since they’re fed up of waiting for the council.
This isn’t about politics, it’s about safety. Hackney Labour needs to stop thinking about managing any embarrassment from the safety standards in its housing stock and give residents the information they promised, without delay.