Building safety for higher risk buildings

We have a legal obligation to manage the risk of fire in any property covered under the Fire Safety Order including properties with communal areas such as high-rise buildings, Independent Living Schemes, and low-rise buildings.

We take safety in our tower blocks very seriously. To reduce the risk of fire in your home, the walls, doors, and floors are all designed to stop fire and smoke spreading. 

Here are some of the ways we’re keeping your home safe:

• Our buildings with communal areas have an up to date fire risk assessment that an independent, qualified assessor completes. We'll carry out further fire safety works to address any findings or recommendations.
• We have a testing and maintenance programme for all fire safety measures at your building.
• Our buildings have compartmentation such as fire doors and fire stopping materials (in areas like our dry risers and service shafts) - these are additional barriers to the building structure that prevent the spread of fire.
• We complete regular inspections at our properties, including monthly walk around checks at our high rise buildings. These help to identify any repairs required and remove items that are blocking any means of escape, especially fire evacuation routes. 
• We carry out fire door inspections every year on your flat door and every three months on the corridor fire doors.
• We’ve fitted sprinklers in our high rise blocks and independent living schemes.

What should I do if there’s a fire in my building?

Fire risk assessments

As your landlord, we complete an annual fire risk assessments at our three tower blocks. These reports highlight recommendations and actions that we need to take to reduce potential fire risks. We're committed to keeping you and your neighbours safe, and we're progressing the recommendations in each fire risk assessment.

You can request a copy of the fire risk assessment for your building from the fire safety team. 

For more information, please call 01226 787878 and ask to speak with the Berneslai Homes Fire Safety Officer or email firesafety@berneslaihomes.co.uk

Reporting concerns about higher risk buildings

You can raise concerns about building safety risks, that are structural safety issues and spread of fire issues. For example:

• flammable cladding on the outside of a building
• fire doors or smoke extraction which are not working or missing that may increase the risk of fire spread
• failure of the building’s structure, such as parts of the building collapsing, cracks, or parts of the building falling off

To raise a concern, please see below.

How to report any concerns about your building

How we deal with complaints about higher risk buildings

Following the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022, if you’re a resident in a high rise building, you can complain to us about the building risks for example:

• our communications to residents
• responses to raised concerns
• how we manage building safety risks

Complaints will be dealt with in line with this procedure and referred to the Fire and Asbestos Compliance Manager who will raise it with the accountable persons and principal person in the Building Safety Project Board. If you’re not happy with the way we're dealing with your complaint, you can refer the complaint to the Building Safety Regulator. We can also do this on your behalf. 

More information about safety in the home