Jan

BREAKING: MPs urge government to bring tougher fire safety rules in for ALL private rented properties

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Debate in parliament today included calls for government not to ignore shared rented homes, HMOs and smaller tower blocks when framing new legislation.

MPs are urging the Government to take
buildings under 11 metres tall into account amid concerns that it is only
targeting high rise blocks with new fire safety measures.

As
phase two of the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry opened this week, MPs met to
debate the fire risk in flats
and shared housing, also raising fears about the poor maintenance of fire
doors, issues with compartmentation
and risky building cladding.

MP for Reading
East, Matt Rodda, highlighted concerns about risks in residential buildings under 18 metres,
the level initially covered by the work after Grenfell to identify high-risk
buildings with Grenfell-like (or ATM) cladding.

“Thousands
of people in Reading live in multiple occupancy buildings under 11 metres –
which will be the same across the country,” he said. “These low-rise flats have
the same potential problems as high rises but they’re not on the government’s
target list.”

He
added that residents were concerned about the poor maintenance of some fire
doors, often in blocks where they didn’t meet relevant fire standards.

“Residents
have been left with poor quality building materials in their homes, while
advice and testing of these materials is not up to standard.”

He
said there were large numbers of unregistered HMOs in his constituency, which were
particularly dangerous and could be exploited by unscrupulous landlords.

“While
local authorities lack the power to investigate these concerns, there may be
many fire safety risks in those buildings.”

Mr
Rodda added that little ACM cladding had been removed from buildings, while potential
human error meant residents might accidentally cause a fire risk as time went
on.

Clive
Betts MP agreed that there could be major risks in non-high rise buildings, often
in the private rented sector. He said: “Managing licences is where local
authority resources is key –where there could be an appeal it should be a local
authority decision, as it’s not for ministers to second guess.”

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