The Camden Council Housing Fire and Building Safety Panel met on 23 October 2025, and approved the minutes from their previous meeting. The panel discussed the Fire and Building Safety Charter Annual Report, Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans, the Commercial Property Fire Compartmentation Remedial Works Programme, and the Q1 Performance on Compliance report. They also reviewed the panel's work programme and action tracker.

Performance on Compliance

The panel reviewed the Q1 2025/26 performance on compliance, which included updates on fire, legionella, asbestos, gas, electrics and lifts (FLAGEL) across Camden's housing portfolio. Sinéad Burke, Head of Property Asset Management, noted that lift performance had dipped because the council had not used a backup contractor recently, but that this would be reviewed if necessary, considering the cost implications. Fire safety checks also saw a slight dip due to delays in issuing a contract renewal, but performance was expected to recover.

The report also covered the council's preparations for Awaab's Law¹ and new electrical testing regulations. Awaab's Law, coming into effect on 27 October 2025, places new statutory duties on social landlords to address hazards within fixed timeframes. The council has established a cross-service working group and is providing specialist training to staff to prepare for these changes. Regarding electrical testing, the government announced the introduction of mandatory 5-yearly electrical testing in social homes, applying to new tenancies from November 2025 and all homes from May 2026. Remedial actions must be completed within 28 days.

Ms Burke said that the council already has a 5-yearly testing programme in place, and is working to ensure resources are available to bring compliance to 100%.

The panel agreed that the next report should include information on how the council was resourcing the requirements arising from the Building Safety Act, a breakdown of the outstanding cases by how long they had been outstanding, workstream issues arising from Awaab's law, and information on the real time information they were able to capture on safety cases through the new software they were using.

Building Safety Act

The panel received an update on Building Safety Case submissions. The council has received a further two Building Assessment Certificates (BACs) for high-rise Buildings from the Building Safety Regulator, bringing the total to four. These certificates, which have been placed on the Building Safety notice boards in each block and published on the council website, certify that the submitted Building Safety Case File (BSCF) adequately demonstrates that the building is built, maintained and managed in a way that is safe for residents.

Officers reported concerns to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) that no requests had been received this year to submit assessment reports for review, despite the BSR having already called in all tranche one buildings submitted last year. Officers were concerned that the BSR might call in all tranche two buildings at once later in the year, noting that the council was preparing all tranche 2 safety case reports in any case.

Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans

Michal Jankowski, Head of Resident & Building Safety, presented a report on Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs). The regulations mandate Residential PEEPs for all high-rise residential buildings and for specified residential buildings with at least two residential units, that are 18+ metres/&+ floors in height, and 11+ metre buildings with simultaneous evacuation strategies in place.

Mr Jankowski said that officers felt that the overall number of Person-Centred Fire Risk Assessments that would be expected from the percentage of residents across all high-rise buildings would be in the region of 1 to 2% of households, and that estimate seemed to align with the general proportion of disabled residents in the area. He added that officers would provide further clarify on this following an analysis of the response rate compared to what was expected, to the Panel.

He clarified that the vulnerable residents, that would require this approach referred to people with mobility issues or had cognitive challenges that could affect their ability to evacuate during a fire. He said that hearing impairments were also considered, although this didn't always mean someone needed help evacuating.

Mr Jankowski agreed to provide the Panel with a copy of the Council's Person-Centred Fire Risk Assessment Policy, and a list of the specific 11 plus metre buildings with simultaneous evacuation strategies in place.

Fire and Building Safety Charter Annual Report

Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management, presented the Fire and Building Safety Charter Annual Report to the panel. Following a question, he advised that there would be a duty on social landlords to ensure all its social housing had an Electrical Installation Certificate, and that this would apply from spring 2026. He said that tenants would be required to allow access to their homes to enable the council to undertake the electrical testing required, something that the council was already undertaking and it was expected that the duty would align with the approach being followed by the council.

Commercial Property Fire Compartmentation Remedial Works Programme

Martin Olomofe, Head of Property, and Stephen Shapiro, Commercial Property Lead, presented a report on the Commercial Property Fire Compartmentation Remedial Works Programme. The report outlined Camden Council's approach to addressing fire compartmentation risks in its commercial property portfolio, which includes 990 properties, many with residential accommodation above or adjacent under the Building Safety Act². Officers reported that works were at an early stage and were being carried out as properties became vacant. They said that tenants had been terminating leases or vacating throughout the process, and the council had been monitoring this closely to begin works as soon as possible.

Mr Olomofe agreed to include a simple bar chart in future reports to help monitor progress across the wider programme, and said that officers were expecting to have completed the remaining surveys by February 2026.

Forward Plan

The Director of Property Management agreed to ask that the Chair of the Chalcots Phase 2 Independent Review look at the PFI Configuration and the role the Council played in this, and that this be included in the report.

Officers confirmed that work had been underway to visit all tenanted homes over the coming year, which would help improve the Council's understanding of resident vulnerability. They also said that the council had been using a text messaging service to alert residents during incidents, and that officers would develop a lift protocol that would be available to view on the Council's website.