By Chris Brockwell, Head of Member Services (South)
I spent part of my career at George Boyd, working closely with fire door and architectural ironmongery products, so fire safety is an area I know well. Since then, the level of scrutiny has changed considerably and landlords now manage that risk differently.
Fire Prevention Month comes at a useful point in the year to look at what’s planned, what’s getting delivered and, importantly, what might be getting pushed back.
The rules around fire and building safety haven’t stood still. The Building Safety Act changed expectations around the management of higher risk buildings. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations brought additional duties for certain residential buildings. From 30th November, Phase 2 of Awaab’s Law brings significant fire and explosion hazards within its requirements for investigation and action.
Executive Teams and Boards regularly review fire safety and have oversight of that work, but often there can be delays in mobilisation through capacity challenges. As social housing professionals, we know how important fire safety is for our tenants and shared owners. We’re here to help your organisation drive outstanding fire risk assessment actions, to scope and deliver the improvement works, and support with added capacity for the short, medium or long term.
Finding a problem is one thing, but sourcing the right contractor who knows your homes well and understands social housing can be another challenge. Our contracts and routes to market help to accelerate support and can reduce pressure on internal teams.
These two projects are examples of effective procurement leading to safer homes.
A North London housing provider used CHIC’s previous Fire Spread Prevention Framework to appoint Ventro for an initial £1.2m programme of compartmentation and fire safety improvement works. Good delivery led to further work, while workshops helped the client team build its knowledge of the work and changing fire safety legislation.
When Cardinal Newman College had an urgent requirement covering fire alarms, detectors and CCTV, it needed to move quickly. CHIC supported a direct award through its Active Fire and Security Framework, resulting in a £51,000 three-year maintenance contract.
Those projects have run alongside wider work with members and the supply chain on the Building Safety Act, the Golden Thread and changing fire safety requirements. They’ve also helped inform how our current Fire & Building Safety Framework has developed.
Some landlords will already have major programmes underway. Others will have contracts approaching renewal, recommendations coming out of fire risk assessments or work sitting further down the investment pipeline.
October is a good time to bring those conversations forward.
If you have concerns about an existing fire safety contract, work coming through your pipeline or future requirements that you haven’t yet worked out how to procure, get in touch with CHIC. We can share experience from work already delivered through our frameworks and look at where the Fire & Building Safety Framework could help.
CHIC’s Fire & Building Safety Framework
Launched in 2025, the framework gives members access to 100 high quality and trusted suppliers. It covers installation and replacement, servicing and maintenance, plus specialist consultancy and management. The individual workstreams include areas such as compartmentation, fire doors, suppression and cladding.
