Building Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Tuesday 14th September 2021 Public Bill Committees

[The Chair]

We will now hear from Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union. We have until 4 pm for this session. Could the witness please introduce himself for the record?

Mr Wrack: Hi, I am Matt Wrack. I am the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

Q I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. Thanks, Matt, for coming before us today. I have a couple of questions. The first is a wide one; then I will ask more about the regulator. Will the Building Safety Bill significantly improve the building safety regime in this country?

Mr Wrack: I think it will improve the building safety regime, and we welcome elements of it. Our assessment is that it does not go far enough. It is a welcome turn after decades of deregulation in public safety and building safety. Our union, which represents frontline firefighters, and our members who work in fire safety specialist teams have often felt like a voice crying in the wilderness on many of these issues for decades. We have objected to the growth of commercial interests in setting standards in the testing regime, and the approach to enforcement—often, regrettably, led by Ministers of different parties. We welcome the turning point in the Bill; it will help to clarify roles and responsibilities. We certainly welcome those elements.

[Rachel Hopkins]

Q A key aspect of the Bill is the establishment of the new regulator in the Health and Safety Executive. Are the functions and objectives of this new regulator appropriate? Does it have the right expertise and resources?

Mr Wrack: We have questions about the resources for the HSE. Whether it has the appropriate skills and expertise is a matter for it to discuss with the Government, and if it does not, it needs to be supported in delivering that. We have concerns about the scale of reductions in, for example, HSE inspectors; they have been reduced by something like a quarter over the past decade. The whole issue of resources runs through this debate on building safety. While we welcome the move towards regulation, that regulation has to be resourced adequately, including in the HSE. That is a key issue the Government will have to address.

[Rachel Hopkins]

Q The new regulator will have to co-operate with fire and rescue authorities and local authorities or the private sector. Do you have any comments on those relationships?

Mr Wrack: I think this will become clearer as the Bill is implemented. There is an obvious point for fire and rescue services around what is meant by the obligation to co-operate with the regulator. Again, fire and rescue services have been subject to unprecedented reductions in staffing numbers over the past decade. That will raise questions about resources when it comes to their ability to co-operate with the requests of the regulator. In the impact assessment, there are suggestions of additional funding for fire and rescue services for that function; we would question how those figures have been drawn up and whether they are adequate.

Under the proposals, if, because of resource implications, a fire and rescue service could not provide assistance, the regulator has the ability to go to another fire and rescue service—or, failing that, to the private sector. We object to the role of private sector providers in that. If we have a problem with resources in the appropriate public service, then those resources should be provided.

[Ian Byrne]

Q It is good to see you, Matt. Is height the best measure of risk and, if so, is the threshold in the Bill appropriate?

Mr Wrack: Picking up on a point made in the previous session, we find the idea of a differential regime based on height somewhat illogical. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it would make sense to have a single system that is understandable to everyone, a single set of accountable people, and a single mechanism for making complaints and addressing problems.

There clearly is an issue around height in relation to building safety. As we put in our written submission, we do not agree with the 18-metre cut-off. We and others have said that if there is to be a height measure, a more logical one would be 11 metres. There are clearly differences between the fire risks in a traditional two-storey house and those in a purpose-built block of flats, where there are specific challenges. Some challenges are general across all forms of purpose-built blocks of flats; some of them apply at particular heights.

Clearly, there are additional challenges once you get to very tall buildings. They range from the ability of firefighters to fight a fire and rescue people to the importance of the internal building safety measures, such as the provision of dry rising mains, fire lifts and so on. All those things will be affected by issues such as the height of the building. As I think the National Fire Chiefs Council has said, it is a complicated issue because there are other factors, such as what has been done to the building and whether the building has been altered from its original design and construction. Lots of things need to be considered. Height in itself can be a bit arbitrary, and in our view the wrong height measure has been chosen.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mike Amesbury]

Q What is missing from the Bill?

Eric Leenders: Experts are probably better placed to consider the dimensions of the Bill, but I did mention the work that the MHCLG has done, which looks to support those who have been classified as cladding prisoners. I understand that in working through the detail of the support for those in properties of 11 to 18 metres, it was found that there could be some complexities in the security arrangements for any lending and the allocating of responsibility for any lending to a property or an individual or leaseholder and so on. The Bill could provide a platform for some of those technicalities to be worked through so that there is a sound legislative footing.

[Rachel Hopkins]

Q I have questions about whether the Bill provides adequate means of redress for residents who want to challenge elements of the building safety charge. Is the provision requiring payment of that charge within 28 days reasonable?

Eric Leenders: Yes, and I think there are also some protections for leaseholders where the amount of remediation exceeds £250. That is welcome. The 28 days is potentially challenging—I am thinking of the staff in our organisation paid on a monthly 31-day cycle—so there could be a little more time for individuals to pay. Salaried individuals in particular are predominantly likely to look in the Bill for support. Increasing that timeline might be helpful.

[Ian Byrne]

Q Eric, given the scale of potential mortgage defaults because of the debts being unfairly loaded on to leaseholders, what would that outcome mean to the health of the housing market?

Eric Leenders: That is quite a difficult question to answer. The first point to make is that the housing stock is of the order of 28 million to 30 million properties, and only about 9 million have mortgages; you could perhaps add another couple of million for buy-to-let properties, so about a third of the overall housing stock would be affected. The composition of the housing stock is about much more than the most at-risk properties. What the Bill looks to address, based on the input from the fire experts, is a risk-based approach that would potentially look to address higher risk properties above 18 metres—there are probably about 1,400 or 1,500 of those properties in the UK. The impact on the overall market might be relatively modest, but the chief point is that for individual homeowners and those that have mortgages—those constituents—the impact is significant and is more than financial. It also has an emotional consequence as well.