Fire Safety Strategy

We asked tenants and leaseholders questions to better understand their perspective in relation to fire safety in their homes.

In total we had 458 responses.

For general needs tenants as a whole group, the location of exit routes (26%) and number of exits routes (15%) are by far the areas of most concern when it comes to what makes tenants feel unsafe in their homes. This is mirrored for sheltered tenants with the location of exit routes and number of exits routes both getting 24%. Leaseholders’ area of greatest concern is residents’ personal belongings being left on landing or communal spaces (22%).

A large number of respondents selected that they felt neither satisfied nor unsatisfied with the information provided by Winchester City Council. When looking at the free text responses following this question 49 stated they did not recall ever receiving any information. While this is not a definitive reason for the ‘neither’ responses it may explain to some extent.

For all tenant and leaseholder groups the preferred methods of receiving advice is either via a housing e-newsletter or postal.

This survey is just one part of what is a very large project looking into fire safety procedures for all of the Council’s housing. The project is ongoing and will eventually result in an updated Fire Safety Strategy, a Fire Safety Engagement Strategy for residents and clearer information and advice on how to stay safe.

It may be a while before you see any changes, but rest assured that a lot of work is going on.

The consultation stage is moving on and we will soon be holding tenant focus groups to look into specific aspects of fire safety, If you ticked you would like to take part in a focus group keep an eye out for emails asking for your availability.

A major part of this project is looking into what, if any, information is provided to tenants and leaseholders. We are reviewing all fire safety publications and how these are communicated to tenants and leaseholders. We have taken onboard that the majority of you would like to receive information either via the housing e-newsletter or postal and are looking into how this will be managed.

A large number of you said the location of exit routes and numbers of exit routes are a concern. This will be considered by a Project Group. Fire signage in all blocks is also in the process of being looked at.

Housing officers will be making residents aware of the importance of fire safety procedures, for example, keeping hall ways clear.

The free text responses of the survey are still be analysed and where appropriate the information provided has been forwarded on to relevant managers for further investigation.