Customer Voice - High-Rise Building Safety Group Customer Experience Case Study

One Vision Housing

Customer Voice

High-Rise Building Safety Group - July 24

Background information

Our High-Rise Building Safety Group is an open forum accessible to all tenants and leaseholders residing in One Vision Housing's high-rise blocks. The main objective of the group is to serve as a channel for One Vision Housing to share relevant information around high-rise building safety and provide an opportunity for tenants and leaseholders to ask any questions they may have around the safety of their homes.

This includes a wide range of topics, including legislative and regulatory updates impacting the organisation's responsibilities, planned investment works affecting building and fire safety, guidance from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, general safety advice, and responses to building or fire safety incidents.

Our approach

At One Vision Housing, our customers sit at the heart of everything we do. We believe that by actively involving customers in shaping our services, we can create stronger partnerships and deliver an exceptional customer experience.

The High-Rise Building Safety Group meets quarterly, with details advertised to customers in a variety of ways (e.g. post, online, in person). At our meetings, residents have the opportunity to raise concerns and ask questions about building and fire safety, with One Vision Housing committed to providing comprehensive responses, either at the meeting or in writing. Out-of-pocket expenses for high-rise residents attending the meetings are also covered by One Vision Housing (e.g. reasonable travel costs).

To improve resident involvement, One Vision Housing actively encourage participation from all high-rise residents, particularly those in blocks undergoing planned works. Feedback gathered through the group will be shared with the One Vision Housing's leadership team and used to inform decision-making processes. To demonstrate the impact of resident input, regular reports on key decisions will be published online, similar to the existing ‘You Said – We Did’ format.

Meeting highlights

At our most recent meeting, our Health & Safety team met with residents to discuss a variety of topics. They provided updates on the following points:

• Fire incidents
• Fire alarm activations
• Communal fire door inspections
• Flat door inspections
• Fire risk assessments - Dates of the last assessment
• Monthly fire safety inspections
• Building safety projects

In addition, Lee Haugh (Building Safety and Compliance Manger) provided an overview of the standard fire safety equipment provided within the blocks and information on their service and maintenance regime.

Resident feedback

After hearing what our Health & Safety Team had to report, our residents raised many points and asked a variety of questions. Our Building Safety and Compliance Manager supported residents with answers to the below questions during the course of the meeting:

1. Should there be evacuation chairs near the exits? No, the fire service will assist tenants to exit safely if needed.
2. Should fire doors always be closed? Yes. However, there is a central corridor fire door at Strand House that is held open by a magnet device. This magnet device is linked to the fire alarm, if the fire alarm is triggered, the magnet will release, and these doors will close.
3. What happens when tenants don't open their doors and aren't allowing OVH in their homes to check homes are safe? This is a neighbourhood issue. There is a ‘no access’ process in place if needed. A ‘no access’ meeting takes place on a weekly basis after which Neighbourhoods help with access. OVH can get legal support to gain access as well if required.
4. I have a fire door now, but why wasn’t a fire door installed before moving into my property? This would/should normally have been picked up via OVH’s voids process. The door was likely not installed previously due to the previous tenant not allowing access.
5. Do bin rooms get inspected? Yes, they are inspected from a fire safety point of view. OVH will look for any damages which can cause issues and ensure the doors and smoke detectors are in good working order. Any other ASB related issues should be directed to OVH Neighbourhoods Team.
6. What is OVH doing about the rubbish is left outside of the bin room because the fob doesn't work? Report this to OVH via phone call or to your Neighbourhood Officer. However, rubbish outside of the bin room can cause a fire risk in the communal area. Items cannot be left outside in communal areas.
7. OVH operates a sterile policy in all their high-rises. Does Sefton Council know about this? Yes, OVH understands that the Council will tell tenants to leave items in the hall to pick up for a timeframe period. We have discussed this previously but haven't found a resolution as yet.
8. Can OVH offer a bulk item removal service for high-rises? This is something which you can suggest to the Neighbourhoods Team, but labour and costs would be a factor.
9. Electrical checks don’t apply to leaseholders. Is this a fire safety risk? Unfortunately, this is not something that OVH can help with. Leaseholders are responsible for anything beyond the front door. Leaseholders are advised to speak to their Leasehold Officer for support. OVH may be able to arrange the service at a cost to Leaseholders.
10. Wren House – tenant reported only 1 lift working since last year. Also, the buttons on the lift did not request a fob so anyone could access this. One lift at Wren House has been working on and off for a few months now. There have been ongoing repairs issue which were resolved on Friday 19th July.

This meeting was very informative and helpful. It makes me want to attend the next one. - High Rise Customer, Strand House

High-rise living

In order to ensure our residents are feeling safe and secure in their homes, we allowed for an additional thirty minutes to be added to the meeting so residents could discuss any other concerns relating to their home. A representative from One Vision Housing's Neighbourhoods Team was on hand to provide support and feedback any issues to management. During the meeting residents discussed two main concerns: communal cleaning and noise complaints in relation to events held at Salt & Tar in Bootle.