Fire Safety
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The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has today (13th March 2024) announced a risk-pooling Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility, with cover starting from 1st April 2024.
Reinsurance support is now in place to launch the Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility, in an industry intervention to help improve the availability of insurance for certain buildings with combustible cladding and other fire safety issues.
The Facility has been established by (re)insurance broker McGill and Partners with extensive support from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and through working in partnership with the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) which will ensure brokers are made aware of the Facility.
It has two key intentions - to expand capacity for insurers already writing business for affected buildings and to encourage competition across the market so that more firms will provide cover. The ultimate solution remains the urgent need for works to take place to make buildings safe and resilient. The Facility is expected to run for three to five years whilst this happens.
The first step will be for the participating insurers – Allianz, Aviva, Axa, RSA and Zurich – to enter higher-risk buildings they currently insure, and which are awaiting remediation works, into the Facility at the point of their annual renewal. These firms have continued to be active in the market and are the top five firms providing insurance cover for commercial and residential buildings.
The Grenfell tragedy and Dame Judith Hackitt Review exposed significant construction and fire-risk issues related to these buildings. As a result, insurers have to consider the heightened risk of an entire building sadly being destroyed in the event of a fire and have had to limit the amount of cover they could provide, because the risk is too high for one firm to cover on its own. Brokers, Freeholders and Managing Agents have instead had to source insurance cover from multiple firms, meaning that several insurers are involved in covering one building, creating a ‘layered’ effect and adding to the cost. It is these buildings which will likely benefit most from the Facility.
Buildings insurance premiums will continue to be based on a variety of risk factors, such as the type and age of the building, previous claims history and other property risks such as storm/flooding or escape of water. External factors such as construction costs and supply shortages will also have an impact
More information and FAQS on how the Facility will work is available here and information for brokers representing affected buildings is available from the BIBA.
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Latest issue of the Home Office’s fire safety reform programme bulletin (published 22nd February 2024), which is for anyone
who is interested in keeping updated on any changes to fire safety legislation and
guidance.- Fire Safety
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The joint Fire Industry Association (FIA), Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), Facade Special Interest Group (SIG), has released this comprehensive document to provide guidance on 'proportionality and risk when carrying out FRAEWs to PAS 9980'.
In line with PAS 9980 recommendations, this paper addresses crucial aspects of risk acceptability and proportionality of remedial measures, offering insights into the decision-making process regarding remedial actions.
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With their ability to enable more people of all ages and abilities to cycle, or to cycle further, e-cycles are an important element of the government’s ambition for active travel to make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the transport sector.
While most e-cycles are very safe, as with all products using lithium batteries, there is a risk of fire, particularly for counterfeit, damaged or poorly modified e-cycles and batteries, or when the incorrect charger is used.
Lithium battery fires can be particularly dangerous and hard to extinguish. The new guidance, applicable to England, Scotland and Wales, published on 1st February by the Department of Transport, is aimed at helping limit the risk of fire.
Access the gudiance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/battery-safety-for-e-cycle-users/battery-safety-for-e-cycle-users
- Fire Safety
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Ensuring that tenants live in good quality, safe homes is a fundamental responsibility of all social housing landlords (landlords). As part of meeting that responsibility, building safety remains a key priority, including ensuring that tenants living in multi-occupied, medium and high-rise buildings are safe from fire safety risks.
In August 2023, private registered providers (PRPs) and local authority registered providers (LARPs) were asked to submit data to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) on the fire safety remediation of 11 metre plus buildings that they were responsible for.
On 16 November 2023, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning outlined in Parliament, in a Building Safety Update, that landlords will be expected to provide quarterly updates on progress on Fire Safety Remediation for all 11 metre plus buildings. A second survey of providers commenced in December 2023.
The survey is to help provide an overview of whether landlords:
- are meeting their obligations under the Fire Safety (Regulatory) Order 2005 for assessing fire safety risks associated with the relevant parts of those buildings;
- understand any risks they identify and how they should be addressed, particularly in relation to external wall systems (EWS) and;
- have plans in place to remediate buildings they have identified as having life critical fire safety risks in a timely manner.
It is for boards and councillors to understand landlords’ legal obligations in relation to managing the safety of buildings and seek assurance that they are being met, and that any identified risks are being well managed and promptly remedied. Ensuring organisations have robust systems and processes, underpinned by accurate and up to date data on fire safety and its management, is a key aspect of ensuring that tenants are safe in their homes.
- Fire Safety