Keeping homes safe and well-maintained

What we are doing about damp and mould

Damp and mould continue to be a high priority for residents and the repairs service.

The council has a five-point-plan to tackle damp and mould in its homes. Over the past two years, we have contacted every council resident who reported damp and mould in the last three years to make sure the issue is resolved and to take more action where needed.

Find out more about our plan to tackle damp and mould in council properties.

Damp and mould in 2023/24

• The council has invested more than £2 million this year tackling damp and mould, including hiring extra staff. 
• We dealt with 127 cases of damp and mould. 95 of these cases have been closed.
• Damp cases have stayed at a similar level to 2022/23. But better tracking and management of cases has meant that over 75% of cases are resolved in one visit.

Top causes and ways to reduce them

We've found that the top two causes of damp and mould are condensation and leaks or penetrating damp.

Surveyors have carried out inspections to find the causes and gave advice to residents on simple tips to help manage condensation. Our teams are carrying out mould treatments and we are prioritising a fast response to those residents with specific conditions. 

We have developed a dedicated team to provide a quicker response for causes such as leaks. We are also adding improvements and using technologies including:

• installing extractor fans
• Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) systems
• installing insulation where possible
• using humidity-monitoring sensors in properties with earlier high readings of moisture to alert us when repeat cases are been found. 

Find you what you can do to stop and reduce risks on our damp and mould advice page.

If you think you have a problem with damp, mould or condensation, call Housing Direct on 020 7527 5400 or email repairs@islington.gov.uk as soon as possible.

Building and fire safety

Changes to legislation and fire safety improvements

New and updated legislation came into effect in 2023/24 and we've been updating our processes to make sure we are complying with the new requirements.

Fire safety

• Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) now include the external wall construction of a building (cladding systems) and fire doors between homes themselves and any common areas of the building. This was a change made by the Fire Safety Act 2021. 
• We updated our FRAs to identify where a more detailed assessment of the external wall construction may be needed.
• Many surveys have been carried out on external walls of council blocks to identify any safety works that are needed.  
• The Fire Safety (England) Regulations became effective in January 2023, applying mostly to residential buildings that are at least 18 metres or seven storeys in height (known as tall blocks) - there are 87 council blocks this high in Islington. As part of these regulations, we have installed Secure Information Boxes (SIBs) in these types of blocks. Included in the SIB are floor and building plans to help the fire and rescue service in an emergency.
• We have created a small team to carry out inspections on flat front entrance doors every year and communal fire doors every three to four months.

Building Safety Act and tall blocks

• Where we share management of tall blocks with Tenant Management Organisations, the council becomes the Principal Accountable Person, responsible for safety. The Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) becomes an Accountable Person, with both parties having specific legal responsibilities and duties.  
• We will apply for a building assessment certificate for all 87 tall blocks after submitting a building safety case for them. We will submit safety cases for our first three buildings in the first three months of 2024/25. On award of the building assessment certificate, we will display these in the common areas of the building as required by law.  
• We have launched a new system and resident portal (Twinnedit) that gives you access to your building information, helps you raise complaints and concerns, and also helps us manage our tall blocks.

Other Building Safety Programme monitors all the things we need to do achieve all new requirements. Work that we have completed includes:

• launching our new Twinnedit system
• extensive tall blocks survey programme
• external validation of programme – benchmarking and feedback
• updated communal area management policies (for example, making sure communal buildings are free of belongings and fire hazards)
• our High Rise Building Resident Engagement Strategy that will improve the ways you can get involved in building safety decisions and how we communicate with you on building safety matters.

This means we successfully registered all 87 HRBs with the Building Safety Regulator and gave the regulator key building information by the October 2023 deadline.

2023/24 was the first year social landlords had to provide the Social Housing Regulator with new Tenant Satisfaction Measures, which include five Building Safety Measures (BSM): fire, gas, asbestos, water hygiene and lift safety checks. Read more about our strong performance on safety checks.

We will continue work on resident engagement about building safety as we always want to improve building safety performance.  

Fire safety works to front doors 

As part of our main responsibilities for more than 36,000 homes in the borough. Since the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, fire safety regulations in the UK have been revised and the we are carrying out fire safety work in the homes we manage in line with the current regulations.  

Fire safety improvements include:

• fire door installations
• fire stopping
• compartmentation (the process of dividing a space into separate sections or units to contain and slow the spread of smoke and fire).  

Fire doors play a crucial role in preventing the spread of fire, allowing people to safely evacuate their home when needed and helping firefighting efforts. All elements of the door play a role in preventing fire spread, including frame, door leaf and any fixtures and fittings, helping to seal the door to prevent spread of fire and smoke.

Fire-stopping helps seal around openings and between joints. Firestops are designed to maintain the fire-resistance rating of a wall or floor assembly intended to slow the spread of fire and smoke.

We work with London Fire Brigade (LFB), Building Control and colleagues to guarantee that the performance criteria requirements are adhered to in accordance with the current building regulations.

Front entrance fire door sets installed:  

• Purpose-built block of flats: 3,934  
• Street properties: 470

Spreading awareness

We arrange open days for residents to gain knowledge about the importance of fire safety in their homes and the shared areas of the building.

If you are concerned about fire safety in your home, you can request a London Fire Brigade home fire safety check.

You can also read our fire safety information.

Fire safety works to our street properties

Improving fire safety to 7,400 street property homes in 2,463 blocks across the borough, managed directly by us and on our behalf by partners, is another key element of our fire safety investment programme.

These homes include both converted street properties and mansion blocks, most of them built in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Because of the original features of these buildings and their conversion later, they do not meet current fire safety regulations - the separation between flats and common areas is not enough. 

We consulted with the London Fire Brigade and our Building Control team before deciding to install a communal early warning interlinked fire detection system, emergency lighting and new flat entrance door sets to individual tenanted dwellings. These measures will alert residents to a fire anywhere in the block so that all occupants of the building know to evacuate if a fire occurs. Our fire risk assessment programme helped informed this and our other safety programmes.

These street properties and mansion blocks, unlike most homes in the borough, need to be evacuated in the event of a fire in any home and this works programme will help refresh residents understanding of the evacuation strategy and how the warning systems being installed will keep them safer. 

If you would like to know more about reducing the risk of fire at home the London fire Brigade offers practical guidance to reduce the risk of fire.