Plans for a national register of social housing tower blocks in England have ben outlined today by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA).
The social housing regulator's national register will hold details on ownership, the number of properties and the age of the tower block. It will also list the date of the last fire risk assessment and the date of the next assessment.
The TSA will begin collecting data from housing associations in February 2010.
Phil Morgan, Executive Director Tenant Services said:
The health and safety of tenants is obviously of paramount importance to housing associations and their tenants. That is why the TSA is proposing to include health and safety in its new standards for social housing landlords, which come into force from April, and by developing a new national register of tower blocks.
"The register will be a valuable tool, allowing us to build up a comprehensive picture of tower blocks in England. It will allow us to work with landlords to ensure that they are fully complying with their responsibilities to carry out risk assessments and taking appropriate action so that tenants are properly protected from the risk of fire."
The TSA wrote to all housing associations in July last year, asking them to check the fire safety of their tower blocks following the fire at Lakanal House in Camberwell. Housing associations were asked to inform the TSA if they owned any housing with similar "scissor block" design features, which were of concern.
Communities and Local Government (CLG), with whom the TSA is working closely on these issues, wrote to all local authorities asking for similar information.
"Scissor block" design has a number of variants, but typically has two storey flats or maisonettes laid out so that the lower storey is served by a common corridor leading to a shared stairwell whilst the upper storey, accessed by an internal staircase, spans from side to side of the building passing over the common corridor. In taller buildings this pattern is repeated.
The proposed register of tower blocks would include all buildings of six storeys or more (excluding basements) that contain social tenants.
Five housing associations have reported that they have a total of six blocks with a similar design to Lakanal. These associations are:
All five associations have advised the TSA of the plans in place or action taken to address any fire safety issues. All of the associations have up-to-date fire assessments and the tenants who live in the six blocks have been notified and will be kept updated.