Find out about building regulations and what to expect from us if you live in a high risk building - a block of flats that has seven floors or more or is 18 metres or higher.
Building Safety Act 2022
What the Building Safety Act 2022 means for you
There are now clearer responsibilities for building owners, developers, contractors, designers and those maintaining high risk buildings. There will be an Accountable Person, and Principle Accountable Person. We will work together and share information to make sure you are safe in your homes.
A regulator that oversees and makes decisions about your building's safety
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will oversee the safety of high risk buildings, making sure that they are designed, constructed, and maintained to meet strong safety standards. They will also aim to improve the competency of people and organisations involved in the construction industry and the management of high risk buildings.
Reports that describe risks and what we are doing to improve safety
Building owners now need to create a safety case report which describes all the building’s safety risks and explains how the owners are managing them for the safety of residents. Building safety risks include how likely fire is to spread or the structure is to fail.
Proof that we are doing our job on safety
From April 2024, the BSR has asked Councils to apply for a building assessment certificate. We will have to provide a safety case report and a copy of our resident engagement strategy to apply. The BSR will use this to decide if we are doing what we need to do under the new safety rules.
If we're successful, we get a building assessment certificate that we will display in the lobby area of each building. It may take the BSR up to five years to assess all 12,500 high-rise buildings across England, as they are asking for information about buildings in turn, so we may not be able to display certificates until 2029.
One source of information and sharing it with everyone
The new safety rules mean the Council must hold all information about a high risk building in a digital format so that we can share easily with those that are responsible for the safety of the building.
Resident engagement strategy
We have developed a resident engagement strategy for our residents who live in high risk buildings. This will help us improve the ways you can get involved in building safety decisions and better communicate with you on building safety matters.
What we have done about building safety
We started a fire safety remediation programme in early 2021. We have worked closely with our fire engineer and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service to prioritise the list of remedial works to be completed.
So far we have:
- replaced all flat entrance doors and communal doors in our high risk buildings with new third party accredited fire door sets
- fitted glow in the dark way finding signage and glow in the dark flat numbers at low level
- installed new automatic opening vents (AOV) on the top floor of the staircase to vent smoke in stairwells
- installed a sprinkler system in the properties in one block
- painted the communal walls in fire rated paint
- fire stopping in the riser cupboards
- added new evacuation signage
- complete Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) for some residents, where applicable
- added a dedicated secure information box (SIB) containing all relevant information for the fire and rescue service (formally known as a Gerda box or PIB)
New complaints process
The new regulations mean that we must give you ways to speed up the process when raising complaints to the regulator.
If you don't think your concerns are being listened to and have a 'relevant complaint', you can email buildingsafety@brentwood.gov.uk.
A 'relevant complaint' is a concern about a building safety risk. For example, a risk to the safety of people in or near the building from either the spread of fire or a structural failure. You can also raise a complaint about the performance of the council doing what it needs to do under the Building Safety Act 2022.
Alternatively, you can fill out the Mandatory Occurrence Form.
Mandatory Occurrence Reporting System (MORs)
MORs are a way for you to let us know if there's a problem in your building so we can sort it out quickly, keeping you and your neighbours safe.
As part of the new requirements under the new Building Safety Act, we're required to have a way to capture and report certain fire and structural safety issues, called safety occurrences, to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).
This requires that we, as the ‘Principal Accountable Person’, need to operate a mandatory occurrence reporting system. Residents and other users of our high risk buildings may notice a problem before we do. The purpose of this reporting system is to make sure the Building Safety Regulator can capture risks that could have a potential impact on fire and structural safety and helps them to assess what such risks may also mean for other buildings.
This term must only be used for very specific types of risk and shouldn't be used to report general repairs. For more information, visit reporting a repair.
Examples of mandatory safety occurrences include:
- the spread of fire (or something that could lead to the spread of fire)
- defective building work
- fire safety issues likely to result in the spread of fire
- total or partial collapse of the building
- unexpected failure or the degradation of construction materials
- discovery of structural defects
- failure of a critical fire safety measure such as an automatic opening vent, smoke extractor or fire doors
To report a Mandatory Occurrence Notice, you can contact us by:
- Emailing buildingsafety@brentwood.gov.uk
- completing the Online form
When completing your Mandatory Notice form it may be easier to upload a photo or video, for example if you find it difficult to describe the occurrence. We will be notified you have submitted a Mandatory Occurrence Form and will assess the submitted details to see if it meets the safety occurrence criteria.
When assessing a Notice, things we will consider include:
- The factors that make up the notice
- If a Mandatory Occurrence Notice report must be submitted to BSR
- If the incident has already been investigated
- If the report contains additional information relating to a previously raised incident
- If the information reported constitutes a complaint
If we agree a notice or report is required, we will submit your notice to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and provide you with a copy of the Mandatory Notice reference (MNR) number which you can use during any correspondence.
If we feel a notice isn't required to be submitted, we will contact you to let you know the reason why. This could be because it has not met the risk criteria, or it needs to be dealt with a different way.
Once the Council has submitted a Notice to the BSR we will have 10 calendar days to submit a report following our investigation into the occurrence.
We will aim to establish what happened (or had the potential to happen), and why. We may also need to put steps in place to reduce or remedy the issue. We may also need to contact you to request more details to help us establish how the occurrence was discovered, and whether anyone was injured.
Yes. All information relating to the safety occurrence will be processed confidentially and in line with data protection principles. Other residents will be informed there has been a report of a safety occurrence but won't be told the source.
A member of the compliance team will be the point of contact for your reported safety occurrence. You can request an update at any time by making contact and quoting the Mandatory Occurrence Notice reference number. When an investigation is concluded we will notify you, and all the residents of the affected block, in writing.
We will carry out annual reviews of our reporting system to ensure it stays effective. If we do need to make changes, we will consult with you, in line with our Resident Engagement Strategy.
If you need any of the information in this procedure in a different language, or an alternative format, for example large text or braille, email buildingsafety@brentwood.gov.uk.
For more information about the Mandatory Occurrence Reporting system, visit GOV.UK: Operating a mandatory occurrence reporting system
As part of the Building Safety Act 2022, there are several golden thread documents we must hold throughout the building’s life cycle.
We have three high risk blocks:
- Drake House
- Gibraltar House
- Masefield Court
Useful documents
- Building Safety Pack – Drake House (PDF)
- Building Safety Pack – Gibraltar House (PDF)
- Building Safety Pack – Masefield Court (PDF)
- E-Scooter leaflet (PDF)
- Fire Safety Leaflet – Fire Doors (PDF)
- Evacuation Signage (PDF)
- Fire Safety Policy (PDF)
- Resident Engagement Questionnaire (PDF)
- Resident Engagement Strategy – Drake House (PDF)
Tenancy Audits and PEEPs
Your housing officer will contact you each year to arrange a tenancy audit of your home and completing a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan with you, noting if you need any more help in the event of an emergency, to evacuate from the property or block. This information will be given to the fire and rescue service to hold securely on their database, to be used in the event they're called to your block.
Product Safety Recalls
You can view updated product recall information that could cause fires or shock by visiting GOV.UK: Product Safety Alerts, Reports and Recalls. If you have any of these products, contact the place you purchased it from to check on the model and to return.
For more information on any information on this page, contact your Housing officer or email buildingsafety@brentwood.gov.uk.