Housing associations, managing agents and inspection companies working in Birmingham run fire risk assessment programmes under England's regulatory framework. Here's what applies, how often it's due, and how local providers manage it with Kaarr.
In England the FRA duty sits in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, clarified by the Fire Safety Act 2021 to include external walls and flat entrance doors, with the Building Safety Act 2022 adding duties for higher-risk buildings.
Birmingham City Council is one of the largest council landlords in England, alongside a sizeable housing association and private rented sector, so providers here often work next to a very large local authority stock.
West Midlands Fire Service is the fire and rescue authority for Birmingham.
Much of the housing is inter-war and post-war, with a notable number of tower blocks and maisonette blocks that carry communal fire safety, emergency lighting and electrical testing duties on top of the dwelling inspections.
The Regulator of Social Housing's May 2023 notice found more than 1,000 overdue fire risk assessments at the city council, mainly for low-rise blocks. When the council announced its sprinkler programme in June 2017 it said it owned 213 blocks of flats and that all had sprinklers in communal bin areas. It now has a compliance team that manages fire risk assessments and checks that remedial actions are done on time. For private blocks, the council's own guidance tells principal accountable persons of buildings of 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more homes to register with the Building Safety Regulator, and says it is an offence to let residents occupy an unregistered building.
The workflow, report template and scheduling for fire risk assessment are the same in every city. See how Kaarr runs fire risk assessment, then book a demo with your Birmingham stock in mind.
Birmingham is in England, so the governing framework is: Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 · Fire Safety Act 2021 · Building Safety Act 2022. In England the FRA duty sits in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, clarified by the Fire Safety Act 2021 to include external walls and flat entrance doors, with the Building Safety Act 2022 adding duties for higher-risk buildings.
FRAs must be reviewed regularly and after any material change — annual review is the standard for residential blocks, with higher-risk buildings on more intensive regimes under the Building Safety Act.
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