Social Housing (Safety) Act

[CWard]

Social Housing Safety Act 2017

 

An Act to increase fire safety standards on social housing, require the retrofitting of fire prevention,and for other purposes.

 

• All residential buildings owned by public entities (referred to in this as “landlords” shall be required to follow the following regulations.

• All external wall assemblies (cladding, insulation, and wall) on high-rise buildings with combustible components must pass the NFPA 285 test. A fund of 23mn gbp shall be created to fund such tests.

• All buildings using the cladding used at Grenfell must begin replacing it within a year. All buildings using the cladding used at Grenfell must begin replacing it within a year. A fund of 400 million will be established to assist councils in refurbishing towers that lack non-flammable cladding.  

• The use of a “Building Notice” building control application for multi-story buildings shall not be permitted.

• Landlords shall be required to post evidence of regular risk assessments in communal areas of buildings. Keeping these posted and updated shall be something checked for on inspections.

• Homes England shall be charged with creating a pathway for fire brigades to become certified to perform fire inspections on social housing, and brigades so certified may take over responsibility of fire inspections from landlords.

• It will be the duty of all landlords to deal with electrical surges and other recurring building-wide safety issues within a month of their recurring. Tenants must be informed and educated about their responsibility to report failure to deal with these issues to the appropriate regulatory body.

• £2.5 billion to retrofit all high-rise residential properties in England with automatic fire suppression.
   
• The FCA is hereby directed to consult on and implement regulation changes requiring
  • Cross-Industry risk pooling in high and medium rise insurance
  • Stronger disclosure of information for leaseholders including, but not limited to, disclosure of remunerations and profits for the company and directors directly to leaseholders and compulsory disclosure of a tenants' rights
  • Leaseholders are considered customers for the purposes of their rights under regulation

 

 

[Richard]

Mr. Speaker, time will be allocated for debate on this bill.

[CWard]

Mr. Speaker,

This bill sets out the Government pledge to ensure that tragedies such as the Grenfell Tower disaster never occur again. In this bill we ensure that flammable cladding no longer poses a threat to high rise social housing. This type of cladding is already illegal in forty-sevens states in the US as well as Germany. It falls on us now to follow suit and this bill does just that. We are funding councils to assist in the removal to make sure that all council owned buildings are up to code. For this, the government is allocating £400 million with an additional £23 million for testing and costing cladding material

This bill also requires landlords to deal with all building wide safety issues, especially electrical surges such as the one that ignited the fire at Grenfell Tower in order to reduce risks and threats.

Under this bill, landlords will also be required to conduct routine risk assessments and post them publicly in communal areas of the building. Information is a powerful tool to create a culture of prevention.

But Mr  Speaker, prevention is not enough alone. All of us would do anything in our to prevent another disaster from ever happening again but we cannot try solely on prevention alone. We cannot simply replace cladding and conduct routine checks, hoping and praying another disaster doesn’t come up  

To this end, we also are retrofitting older buildings to ensure that sprinkler systems work to put out imminent threats. This way in the event of another disaster those active safety systems will kick in. £2.5billion will be allocated to retrofit older building who lack such systems, catching them up with building constructed after 2007. Regularly tested sprinklers would stop fires and reduce smoke inhalation, preventing the risk of serious injury and even death.

Hindsight is always clear Mr. Speaker, but we cannot go back in time and prevent the Grenfell tragedy. We cannot make up for the errors of the past, but we can act now to protect innocent lives from being lost. This bill moves beyond public tributes and well wishes. It goes beyond hopes and prayers. It shows solidarity with the families of victims. It makes good on our collective promise of “never again”. It seeks a better future for families living in our high-rise communities, and it creates a culture of prevention and peace of mind for the people of our great nation. 

[Blakesley]

Second reading.

[Macmillan]

Mr Speaker,

I would like to thank the Honourable Member, the Minister for Housing, for his speech today and for bringing this Bill before the House. It is clear however that the moment that Labour try and resolve this issue without Conservative input there is a complete breakdown in the ability to resolve these problems.

We can start with an easy one Mr Speaker, one that I would hope that the Minister in charge of Housing would know. A social housing operator is not a "landlord", they are a "Housing Association". I have many in my constituency that perform excellent work to assist those who need an extra helping hand. Calling them a landlord might help sell Labour's grievance politics, but it does not help this debate, nor will it help the judicial system when they have to try and enforce this new law. I therefore move the following amendment:

Quote

Macmillan I

That all references to "Landlords" be amended to read "Landlords and Housing Associations".

Mr Speaker, I am sure that this amendment may puzzle the members opposite but I can assure them that there is method here. For you see Mr Speaker, this legislation while ground-breaking for social tenants, does nothing for private tenants. Mr Speaker, if a private landlord or property management firm were to want to use substandard cladding as seen in Grenfell, this legislation wouldn't touch them. That means that thousands of students, private renters, and other constituents of every MP in this House could be abandoned by this Government and left without any means of support. Mr Speaker when the talks began there was talk of Labour bailing out the landlords, it is clear in fact that far from bailing them out the Government have decided to simply leave them alone and to Hell with the consequences. I therefore move the following amendment:

Quote

Macmillan II

• All residential buildings owned by public entities, or private entities and individuals where the building is over 7 stories high, (referred to in this as “Landlords and Housing Associations” shall be required to follow the following regulations.

Mr Speaker, with this amendment we will be able to say that all high rise and medium rise residential housing in the country is safe, something that the Bill as currently written simply does not do.

Finally Mr Speaker I will offer an amendment which the Government had said they would incorporate into the Bill but have simply opted not to in the text of this legislation. I am, of course, referring to my intervention in the Ministerial Statement where I proposed sweeping reforms of the insurance sector to ensure that tenants are not priced out of insurance or gouged by their landlords. I therefore offer my third and final amendment as follows:

Quote

Macmillan III

• The FSA is hereby directed to consult on and implement regulation changes requiring
  • Cross-Industry risk pooling in high and medium rise insurance
  • Stronger disclosure of information for leaseholders including, but not limited to, disclosure of remunerations and profits for the company and directors directly to leaseholders and compulsory disclosure of a tenants' rights
• Leaseholders are considered customers for the purposes of their rights under regulation

Mr Speaker these reforms will bring down the cost of insurance, they will protect the rights of leaseholders, and they will ensure that tenants know the ins and outs of their insurance and insurers.

Mr Speaker this legislation is a good start but fatally flawed. It is clear to see why the Government saw fit to bring the Conservatives on board and I thank them for their self-awareness in that regard. This legislation would let private landlords off the hook entirely, allowing the continuation of the use of substandard cladding endangering their tenants' lives. The Conservatives have engaged with the Government openly and in the full spirit of cooperation and this has broadly been reciprocated by the Government, now that we are not behind closed doors any longer I would urge the Government to continue in that spirit of cooperation to protect lives and prevent a private sector Grenfell from being the unintended legacy of these regulation changes.

[Axon]

Mr Speaker

ORDER! Does a Member of the Government wish to accept these amendments as friendly?

[Anthony Clarke]

Mr. Speaker, 


The Government will accept Macmillan 1 and 2 as friendly. We cannot accept Macmillan 3 as friendly, because it is unclear what is being referred to be the "FSA" in the amendment, assuming that the Right Honorable gentleman is referring to the Financial Services Authority that would be very irresponsible as that FSA has not existed since 2013 and therefor would be completely incapable of implementing the regulation changes his amendment would require. 

[Macmillan]

Mr Speaker,

 

My apologies, the amendment should read the FCA, as in the Financial Conduct Authority. So I beg leave to move Macmillan IV as an amendment.

 

"Macmillan IV

The FCA is hereby directed to consult on and implement regulation changes requiring

Cross-Industry risk pooling in high and medium rise insurance

Stronger disclosure of information for leaseholders including, but not limited to, disclosure of remunerations and profits for the company and directors directly to leaseholders and compulsory disclosure of a tenants' rights

Leaseholders are considered customers for the purposes of their rights under regulation"

[Axon]

Mr Speaker

ORDER! Does the Government accept the amendment as friendly?

[Anthony Clarke]

Mr. Speaker, 

We accept the amendment as friendly.