Your feedback, and our responses, about Building Safety Engagement Strategy

Want copy of the Building Safety Strategy and Fire Safety Strategy and for them to be reviewed yearly

The strategies are in development and will be available on our website once they have been agreed. If you cannot access the strategy online, let us know and we will ensure you are given a copy.

Email: buildingsafety@southampton.gov.uk

Warden: speak to your warden and they can provide a copy

Phone: 023 8083 3006 (option 7)

 The strategies will be reviewed every two years or as required in order to comply with legislation.

Building Safety Group to become a Sounding Board for the council.

The building safety group is there to challenge the council on issues regarding building safety & we commit to sharing policies & strategies with them for feedback before they go live.

Change ‘Stay Put’ policy/advice

The ‘Stay Put’ policy remains the best one in case of a fire in your Residential building– if the fire is in your own, or an immediate neighbour’s flat, get out, shut your front door and phone the fire service. If the fire is in another that is not immediate to your flat then stay put, close your windows and doors; if you need to leave the building, then the emergency services will tell you what you have to do.

Please read your building specific fire action instruction which can be found on the Noticeboard within your block.

Clarify what ‘mandatory occurrence report’ is and change it.

As a result of the Building Safety Act 2022, Southampton City Council must report certain fire and structural safety issues to the Building Safety Regulator.  This is called mandatory occurrence reporting.  The things we report includes but not conclusive to, flammable cladding on the outside of the building or failure of the building’s structure such as parts of the building collapsing or issues that may increase the risk of fire spreading. 

Mandatory occurrence reporting only relates to high-risk

buildings.  This is included in our strategy because we want our residents and leaseholders help us in keeping you and our building safe.  So, if you feel that there are fire and/or structural building issues relating to the block you live in, please complete our online form: Safety concerns about a council high rise building (southampton.gov.uk)

We will investigate it and where appropriate we will report this to the Building Safety Regulator.

Need central reporting for building safety issues & need emergency contact for ‘out of hours’ building safety reporting.

For non-emergency building safety concerns:

The response time is 24 hours. Please email: buildingsafety@southampton.gov.uk

For building safety emergency: Please call 999.

General repairs:

Please use the online form:

https://www.southampton.gov.uk/housing/your-home/repairs/report-a-repair-new/

Emergency repairs:

please call us on: 02380 833 006

Emergency repairs out of hours:

please call us on:  02380 233 344

Fire safety general queries/non urgent

Please report this to firesafety.works@southampton.gov.uk

Reporting a high-rise building safety concerns

Please use our online form: Safety concerns about a council high rise building (southampton.gov.uk)

The council could listen by:

• holding yearly events in Tower Blocks
• engage children & young people about building safety
• have specific meetings when block issues come up
• hold meetings in the evening

The Tenant Participation & Engagement team work to provide opportunities for residents to have their voice heard & hold SCC to account.

Throughout the year, the team support various panels,  forums  & groups  aimed at scrutinising SCC’s housing services.  These include forums for high-rise residents and a building safety group

The Junior Neighbourhood Wardens are part of Tenant Engagement Team.   This scheme co-ordinates a wide range of activities for young people including, but not limited to,  fire safety events

If you want to become involved in your housing service in any capacity, then we have a way for you to have your say. You can let us know how you would like to get involved. You can also contact the Tenant Engagement team directly:

Phone: 023 8083 3185

Email: tenant.engagement@southampton.gov.uk

Web: Tenant engagement (southampton.gov.uk)

Would like to see the results of this consultation & recommendations (period 19/02 – 17/03/24) published in: Tenants Link, send via Tenant Engagement email, Notice boards with QR codes, at meetings, libraries & paper copies available for the vulnerable people

Consultation results and final strategy will be shared through the You Said, We Said, Tenant’s Link article and the strategy will be made available on our website one approved.

Develop a video portal to inform tenants of the consultation results (any consultations) – with bite sized information on issues.

There are no plans to develop a video portal. However, we will provide a summary of the consultation results along with the changes and make this available via our website for you to view.  You can request hard copy.

Excessive questions in monitoring forms? Do you really need to know all that for the consultation on Building safety TE strategy?

We asked monitoring questions so we can consider how policy will impact different groups of tenants, to get a wide range of views.

Have a follow up meeting to update everyone who took part in focus groups on the results of the consultation: what has changed.

Those who attended focus groups will be contacted regarding the scheduling of a follow up meeting.

Draft strategy unclear about;

• Principal Accountable Person (PAP) and Accountable person (AP);
• who is the responsible person for the individual blocks;
• definition of terms such as vulnerable people, commonhold, significant number of people.

The PAP or AP is Southampton City Council. The Responsible person to Building Safety Regulator contact details is the Chief Executive of Southampton City Council. Executive Management Team (southampton.gov.uk).   

The responsibility for individual blocks is Southampton City Council.

There is no one single definition for vulnerable or vulnerability.  However, the definition provided is based on the findings in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report and the excerpt for which we have taken: ‘Residents whose ability to evacuate the building without assistance may be compromised (such as persons with reduced mobility or impaired cognition)’.  See paragraph 113.79 and 113.81 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report on vulnerable people[1]: GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY: Volume 7

Appropriate to this strategy, we will ensure the terms mentioned are clearly defined in the strategy under’ Appendix - 3 Definitions’.

[1] See excerpt from Grenfell Tower Inquiry report on vulnerable people below in Appendix 2: Definition

Would be good to produce a video of the strategy – with simplified information/summary of the strategy and to have an accessible version of the strategy.

Unfortunately, we are unable to do a video version of the strategy, but this will be made available via our website. If you search ‘building safety engagement strategy’ on the search engine on our website, you would be able to find all our strategies and policies.  See Key strategies, plans and policies (southampton.gov.uk)

If you do not have access to the internet, please email the building safety team and we can provide a hard copy for you.

‘’Tower blocks’’ should be changed to all the blocks in the strategy because the council is committed to all blocks.

The’ Scope’ within the strategy refers to all blocks.

What about the leaseholders

The strategy includes leaseholders.

Have competent SCC staff install electrical stuff (like stoves) as tenants cannot afford one – maybe to have a pool of qualified staff that tenants can call upon for the “private” work – this would ensure the work is done to SCC standard.

We currently do not offer that facility. However, you can make improvements to your home provided you ask us, and we have given you written agreement before you start.

Making improvements to your home (southampton.gov.uk)

How much is all this going to cost? Has someone calculated the costs?

The creation of this strategy is at no additional cost to our residents, shared owners or leaseholders.  The work carried out in this consultation is covered by existing resources with a view to ensuring we meet legislative requirement.

Change the response time from 10 working days for firesafety.works@southampton.gov.uk  ‘out of office’ email

This turnaround time is necessary to ensure that we are able to answer to your enquiry properly.  The 10-day response time also reflects the fact that this is not a route to report emergencies. It is instead for general enquiries. The automatic response to this e-mail address provides advice regarding the best point of contact for different issues.  

Always call 999 in the event of a fire or structural emergency.

Safety concerns about a council high rise building (southampton.gov.uk)