Since Grenfell the duties on social landlords have multiplied: the Fire Safety Act 2021 brought external walls and flat entrance doors into the risk assessment; the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 added monthly checks, information boxes and resident information; the Building Safety Act 2022 created the golden thread and the Building Safety Regulator; and the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 gave the Regulator of Social Housing teeth on consumer standards. Your fire safety contractor is either helping you evidence all of that or adding to the burden.
What we deliver across housing stock
- Fire alarm and emergency lighting planned maintenance across general needs, sheltered, supported and extra-care stock.
- Weekly and monthly testing regimes where the contract places them with the contractor, with weekly compliance certificates uploaded on time.
- AOV and smoke ventilation, dry riser, bin room sprinkler and chute maintenance in blocks.
- Type 1 to Type 4 fire risk assessments programmed by risk, with resident summaries.
- Fire stopping and compartmentation remediation with a photographic golden thread record.
- Electrical safety: communal EICRs and remedials, emergency lighting upgrades, door entry and aerial systems.
- A 24/7 helpdesk with a 3-hour out-of-hours attendance target for Priority 1 faults.
The operational reality
A monthly emergency lighting programme across 800 sites is roughly 5,500 visits a year before a single call-out. Add weekly alarm testing where the specification places it with the contractor and the number of attendances defines the size of the team, not the price per visit. We plan programmes geographically, give engineers home patches, and state our assumptions about testing scope explicitly in every tender, because the difference between a two-engineer and a five-engineer contract should be a conversation, not a surprise.
Residents
Compliance depends on access, and access depends on residents understanding why we are there. We provide letters in plain English, a resident-facing page you can link to from your website, and engineers trained to explain a weekly alarm test to someone who is tired of hearing it.
Questions we are asked in this sector
How do you handle no-access across hundreds of homes?
With a process, not excuses. Written notice at the period your tenancy agreements require, reschedule requests answered within two working days, three evidenced attempts with time-stamped door photographs, and a court-ready pack when you need one. No-access percentage is reported monthly and is typically under 5% with re-attendance inside ten working days.
Can you provide asset data for our golden thread?
Yes. Every device we install or maintain is tagged with a unique ID and, where you supply them, your QR labels. Data is exported as CSV or XLSX against your data dictionary, with monthly delta files, and we can exchange via API where your system supports it.
What KPIs do you report?
Programme compliance (target 98%), statutory compliance (100%), first-time fix (above 90%), no-access (below 5%), defects closed within ten working days, data returns within five working days, RIDDORs (zero), resident satisfaction and complaints. Whatever your contract specifies, monthly, in the portal.
Do your engineers work safely around residents?
All engineers carry photo ID, are DBS-checked, follow your safeguarding and vulnerable-resident procedures, and are briefed on the site before attending. We provide resident-facing letters and a page on this site explaining what a visit involves.
