System Building: Repairs and Maintenance

(asked on 29th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the number of large panel system buildings that require remediation work.


Answered by
Lee Rowley Portrait
Lee Rowley
Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
This question was answered on 6th December 2023

The issues with Large Panel System (LPS) buildings are longstanding and well known. When the Ronan Point tower block collapsed in 1968, following a gas explosion, it became clear that tower blocks erected in the 1960s and 1970s using a system of large pre-cast concrete panels were more vulnerable to collapse than other structures. A programme of remediation was put in place to strengthen these buildings and reduce the risk. In 2017 the Department for Communities and Local Government wrote to all local authorities and housing associations to raise awareness and to outline actions in relation to LPS buildings, advising them to seek expert advice and pointing them in the direction of the existing guidance on managing these buildings. Specifically local authorities were asked to check that buildings were structurally sound and could carry gas safely. Some buildings had gas supplies removed to mitigate the risk.

Responsibility for the safety and maintenance of large panel system blocks lies with the building owners, including local authorities where they are the owners. Local authorities are also responsible for keeping the housing conditions in their area under review (including structural safety) with a view to identifying any action that may need to be taken by them.

This system requires the accountable person for a building to take all reasonable steps to ensure they have effective and proportionate measures in place to manage building safety risks and that the appropriate level of protection is provided in these buildings.

All building owners should continue to fulfil their duties to manage safety risks of all kinds in their buildings in a proportionate, risk-based, and evidence-based manner, and taking action where they deem necessary.

In addition, and since April, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has a duty to keep under review the safety and standards of all buildings. The BSR is implementing a new safety case regime which all occupied ‘higher-risk buildings’, including all blocks of flats more than 18m, will be subject to. Under this new regime, accountable persons are now required to register with the regulator and provide information about their building, including structural characteristics. They will also need to demonstrate to the Regulator how they are managing building safety risks related to the spread of fire and structural failure, on an ongoing basis. This data will provide the regulator with more information about the prevalence and current condition of LPS buildings.

Reticulating Splines