Our Building Safety Surveys Programme (BSSP)
The safety of our residents has always been and remains our top priority. As part of our ongoing commitment to resident safety, we’re launching a building safety survey programme; a five-year risk assessment project focused on high-rise buildings (HRB).
The surveys will include internal and external communal areas, as well as inside a selection of homes.
This programme aims to identify and assess structural and fire safety risks in our HRB so we can take appropriate action to ensure resident safety and compliance with building and fire safety regulations.
The expected programme duration will be between 3-5 years, from April 2025 – April 2030 across our HRB portfolio.
Why are we delivering the programme now?
Much of what we’re delivering is driven by the new duties of the Principal Accountable Person (PAP) under the Building Safety Act 2022.
The Building Safety Act is a response to past safety failures and concerns, most notably the Grenfell Tower fire, which highlighted significant gaps in building safety and regulatory oversight.
Some of the duties require us to:
• Assess building safety risk – the surveys allow us to establish risks to buildings, what controls we have in place to mitigate the risks and what, if anything, more we could do to protect against the risk.
• Evidence resident and occupant safety – demonstrating people in and around our buildings are safe by ensuring they understand their role in maintaining a safe living environment.
• Promote resident engagement – ensuring you’re informed of risks and decisions relevant to your building and encouraging feedback on building and fire safety matters.
What buildings will be included in the programme?
We'll only be surveying buildings where we're the PAP and the building is high-rise. The PAP is the organisation or individual with a legal obligation to ensure the safety of a HRB. This includes maintaining and managing fire and structural safety risks. The PAP is usually the building owner, landlord or management agency. An HRB is a building that is at least 18 metres tall or has 7 or more storeys with at least 2 residential units.
Engaging with residents
We know when works take place in your building, it can be disruptive. We’re committed to ensuring this programme runs smoothly and doesn’t cause an inconvenience to your daily life.
We’ll ensure you’re updated on any issues during the surveys, as well as any changes to the schedules and outcomes. We’ll use letters, texts, and resident meetings (where possible) to keep you informed. We’re keen to maintain open communication throughout the programme, so please get in touch if you’ve any concerns.
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We want to hear your views on building safety in two key areas:
• The delivery of the surveys - how well they were carried out. This includes communication and quality.
• The satisfaction with the results – whether the completed surveys meet your expectations in terms of safety
We’ll seek your feedback through a survey when the programme at your building is complete.
If you have an issue in your home, or the building in which you live, it’s important you let us know. You can raise a service request to ask us to put something right and we’ll tell you how we plan to resolve the issue. If you’re unsatisfied with the outcome, you might want to make a complaint.
To find out how to do so, click here.
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Results of the surveys
If safety issues are identified, further investigations will be taken based on the severity of the risk. This may include the implementation of additional safety measures.
If the surveys identify that a home or building requires urgent work to be made safe, residents may be temporarily relocated while the works are carried out. This could also apply to residents whose home was not surveyed, due to findings from surveys which took place elsewhere in the building and the nature and scope of subsequent work that may need to take place.
We understand relocating can be inconvenient; however, relocation decisions will not be taken lightly and will depend on the severity of the issue and potential risks to health and safety.
Once the contractors have completed the surveys, they’ll produce a report.
When we receive the report, we’ll go through the findings, then provide residents with a summary of the report and explain the next steps.
Frequently asked questions
The surveys will be carried out with minimal disruption to your home. Our contractors are trained professionals who will ensure that no substantial damage occurs during the process.
Once the works are completed, the contractors will thoroughly clean up and restore the areas they’ve worked on to the condition they found it in.
• Asbestos survey (only applies to buildings completed before 2000) - the inspection identifies and provides accurate information on the presence, location and condition of asbestos. It assesses the level of damage and/or deterioration of the asbestos-containing materials in a building and whether remedial action is needed.
• Type 4 fire risk assessment – this is the most comprehensive fire risk assessment. It involves a detailed inspection of both common areas and residential flats to check for hidden risks. This requires taking samples of the building fabric to analyse the structural integrity and safety of a building.
• A structural survey – this is a detailed inspection of a building’s structure conducted by a structural engineer. It focuses on a property’s structural integrity and provides valuable information to help identify potential risks so that informed decisions regarding renovation and repair work can be made.
We’ll be contracting three key building specialists to oversee and deliver the risk assessment of our buildings.
• Fire and structural engineering consultant - they focus on ensuring the safety and efficiency of buildings, which involves fire safety compliance, building code compliance and identifying potential risks.
• Asbestos contractor – conducts surveys and testing to determine the presence of asbestos in the building.
• Making good contractor – open up areas that need testing and make good on completion.
A borescope will be used as part of our survey. This device allows us to inspect hard-to-reach areas, such as wall cavities and structural components to ensure a thorough evaluation of the building's condition. It will help us identify any hidden defects or safety concerns, contributing to a comprehensive and accurate assessment
These surveys are important, but they aren’t being carried out because there are concerns around safety.
These are part of our ongoing plans to improve our understanding of your building, to help us to ensure the safety of residents and longevity of the building for the future.
Not every property or building will need a detailed risk assessment. We’ve been reviewing all documentation relating to the construction of our buildings to help us decide on the extent to which and order in which they should be surveyed.
The programme prioritises buildings according to height, number of residents and information available as well as other safety factors. This mirrors the ‘tranche’ system followed by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).
We understand that many residents have questions about the Building Safety Act and how it affects leaseholders. For guidance on cost implications, please refer to our Leaseholders Service Charge Policy.
Our contractors will identify 10-20% of homes within the building which they’ll need to access as part of the survey. Accessing a cross section of homes across all floors will help them completely understand the building and the scope of homes within it. This will help us develop a broader understanding of potential issues and put measures in place to mitigate risks.
If your home is chosen for surveying, we’ll get in touch with further information. You have the right to refuse access for these surveys, but we’d encourage your participation so we can ensure the building is safe for all residents.
If we need to access your home and you need support to enable us to do so, please contact us and we'll do what we can to support you.
If we’re accessing your home, you just need to be at home to let the contractor in. You don’t need to leave your home or move any furniture beforehand. Should the contractor need you to move any items while they’re surveying, they’ll ask you to do so and will be happy to assist or do this under supervision Should any damage be caused, we’ll cover the costs to resolve this.
