Nottingham announces plans to protect high rise residents

While the government outlines its latest plans to replace unsafe cladding, Nottingham City Council has announced ongoing action to support residents living in tall buildings.

The Council’s actions include contacting developers and owners to establish which buildings might have unsafe cladding, setting up the country’s first Joint Audit and Inspection Team to promote and investigate wider fire safety aspects in all multi-occupied residential buildings of 11 or more flats, and enhancing the levels of knowledge and experience of the Council’s Building Control Team through accreditation and skills training.

All buildings that are identified as having unsafe cladding in Nottingham have either undergone or in the process of undergoing remediation works.

Cllr Linda Woodings, Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage at Nottingham City Council, said: ‘The safety of our residents and leaseholders, whether living in high rise council apartments or private rented ones, continues to be of the utmost importance to us.

‘Following the Grenfell tragedy, we acted swiftly to establish which buildings might be at risk and to engage the co-operation of the building owners and developers, for them to put plans in place to start replacing any suspected unsafe cladding.

‘Working in partnership, we have undertaken a huge amount of work to help reassure city residents on the wider safety aspects of living in buildings, which includes carrying out fire safety audits of existing and new taller buildings, as well as investing £8.5m in an additional fire safety programme for council tenants.’

Nick Murphy, Chief Executive at Nottingham City Homes, added: ‘Since the terrible tragedy at Grenfell, we have worked with partners Nottingham City Council to undertake a huge amount of work to enhance the fire safety of council-owned high-rise flats. All of our council high-rise blocks have fire risk assessments in place and are fully compliant with current regulations.

‘The blocks were already safe prior to these works, but we have carried out further improvements like installing sprinkler systems, and upgraded the fire alarms, intercoms and communication equipment. This programme of fire safety improvements has offered further reassurances to the people living in our high rise blocks.’

In related news, the Secretary of State has warned developers that they must pay to fix the cladding crisis that they caused.

Photo by Tom Podmore