High-rise buildings
Find out about new building regulations and what to expect from us if you live in a high-rise building - a block of flats that has seven floors or more or is 18 metres or higher.
The Building Safety Act 2022 contains new building safety regulations, including for taller, high-rise buildings, passed after the problems with older regulations that led to the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in 2017.
What the Building Safety Act 2022 means for you
You know who is responsible for your safety
There are now clearer responsibilities for building owners, developers, contractors, designers and those maintaining high-rise buildings. There will be an Accountable Person, such as a Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) or other body, and Principle Accountable Person (the council). We will work together and share information to make sure you are safe in your homes.
A regulator that oversees and makes decisions about your building's safety
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will oversee the safety of high-rise buildings, making sure that they are designed, constructed, and maintained to meet strong safety standards. They will also improve the quality of people and organisations involved in the construction industry and the management of high-rise buildings.
Reports that describe risks and what we are doing to improve safety
Building owners now need to create a safety case report which describes all the building’s safety risks and explains how the owners are managing them for the safety of residents. Building safety risks include how likely fire is to spread or the structure is to fail.
Proof that we are doing our job on safety
From April 2024, the BSR will ask the council to apply for a building assessment certificate. We will have to provide a safety case report and a copy of our resident engagement strategy to apply. The BSR will use this to decide if we are doing what we need to do under the new safety rules.
If we are successful, we get a building assessment certificate that we will display in the lobby area of each building. It may take the BSR up to five years to assess all 12,500 high-rise buildings across England, so certificates we may not be able to display certificates until 2029.
One source of information and sharing it with everyone
The new safety rules mean that we must hold all information about a high-rise building in a digital format so that we can share easily with you and others that are responsible for the safety of the building.
Change in building control authority
The BSR is now the building control authority for construction and refurbishment of high-rise buildings. The Building Safety Act also introduces several "gateway points" that developers and building owners must pass through when constructing buildings. These "gateway points" involve strong safety assessments and approvals before moving to the next stage.
What we have done about building safety
The council started the Building and Fire Safety Programme in early 2022 with a board and several working groups.
The board meets every month to decide how to meet our legal duties and put in place infrastructure and enough resources to:
- meet new regulations
- change the way we do things
- let you have your say
- increase the quality of workers and leaders.
We are reviewing policies and how we put them in place to meet the new regulations and build long-term infrastructure and safety culture. This will all help to make everything safer for you.
How we will communicate better with you
The council wants to improve the way we communicate with you.
Resident engagement strategy
The council has developed a resident engagement strategy for our tenants who live in high-rise buildings. This will help us improve the ways you can get involved in building safety decisions, tell you the type of building information you can ask to see, and better communicate with you on building safety matters.
Download and read the strategy.
Information about your building
You need access to building information so you know that we are working hard to make sure your building is safe from the spread of fire or structural issues. We can provide building information in different ways if you ask for them, such as easy read, large text or a different language. You can ask for this information by emailing HRBSafetyteam@islington.gov.uk.
We will give you:
- what we are doing to stop and deal with possible fire and building safety risks to residents
- roles and responsibilities of the council (the "Principle Accountable Person"), accountable person (such as a TMO) and the Building Safety Liaison team and their contact details
- how you can reduce the risk of fire in your home
- how to report the risk of fire spread or a structural safety issue
- what to do if a fire starts in your building.
You can now ask for more detailed information about the safety measures in your building, such as:
- the latest fire risk assessments for your building
- outcomes of building safety inspection checks when they are available
- how we manage facilities in the building
- anything that can stop harm or damage (like smoke alarms)
- protection from fire (like fire doors)
- fire strategies for the building
- structural assessments, where available.
Investing in new technology
In 2023, we bought a new system that supports social housing landlords to meet the new building safety rules.
Twinnedit creates a digital 3D plan of your building and also holds all of your high-rise building's safety information, like Fire Risk Assessments. You can also find out who your council officers are and contact them.
Watch the video for more information about Twinnedit and the benefits to you.
New complaints process
The new regulations mean that we must give you ways to speed up the process when raising complaints to the regulator.
If you don't think your concerns are being listened to and have a 'relevant complaint', raise a complaint by emailing the Building Safety Liaison team on HRBSafetyTeam@islington.gov.uk.
A 'relevant complaint' is a concern about a building safety risk. For example, a risk to the safety of people in or near the building from either the spread of fire or a structural failure. You can also raise a complaint about the performance of the council doing what it needs to do under the Building Safety Act 2022.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint, you can send the complaint to the Building Safety Regulator. We will tell you how to do this during the complaints process.