Conjuring up images of Dickensian London or the Blitz era, the term ‘waking watch’ is the historical phrase that emerged in the immediate post-Grenfell Tower disaster era. A verbal reference from another time to mark our systemic failure to construct and maintain buildings that are inherently safe for residents. Not quite the last resort of […]
Featuring a speaker line up including Dame Judith Hackitt and renowned journalist and author Peter Apps, Harmony Fire’s latest Housing Leaders’ Summit moved to Edinburgh, as The Scotsman Hotel played host to a day of learning, collaboration and sharing best practice. Themed around the subject of innovation, keynote speaker and author of the independent review […]
The recently introduced Procurement Act 2023 is a solid piece of legislation that clearly benefits from considered collaboration between public and private sector organisations. Bringing simplification and greater transparency to public procurement is a win-win situation and this ethos shines through in Sections 16 and 17 of the Act, where there is an open invitation […]
Hans Mitchell, Client Relations Director at Harmony Fire Watching the footage of a recent fire at a block of flats in Bethnal Green provides a stark reminder that for those of us working in the arena of ‘risk management’, operating under a mindset of chronic unease is one of our most effective guiding principles. The […]
The Industry Competence Committee (ICC) was set up in September 2023 to provide strategic leadership, advice and encouragement on matters of competence to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and the construction industry. It’s inaugural annual report has now been published. With industry competence a central criticism emerging from all post-Grenfell Tower inquiries and reports, this […]
Matt Ford, Head of Mechanical & Electrical at Harmony Fire A question recently posed to me by a social housing executive was perfectly simple, and of course completely implausible given existing statutory regulations, but I played along anyway. ‘If you could invest in just one fire safety system to protect residents, what would that be?’ […]
Ged Moore, Managing Director at Auro by Harmony While many would argue that the pace of technology adoption in the social housing sector remains lamentably slow, the rise and prominence of data analyst and chief technology officer (CTO) roles in housing organisations reveals a different reality. As a housing leader recently remarked to me, data […]
What have we learned from the recently published minutes of the 2 April final session of the Ministerial Working Group (MWG) on Building and Fire Safety arising from the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2? The 26 participants reinforced Scotland’s acceptance of the Grenfell Inquiry’s recommendations and the plans for implementation through cross-sector collaboration. This is a […]
Safety is fast becoming a very hot political potato for a government with a manifesto pledge to deliver new homes at a rate last seen over 50 years ago, during Harold Wilson’s premiership. To build 1.5 million new homes by 2029, the Prime Minister committed to ‘take the brakes off building’ with planning reforms to […]
The recent Scottish Government Response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report recognises the importance of this tragic event as a catalyst for profound change in enhancing resident safety. The introduction of a number of reforms, immediately following the Grenfell disaster in 2017, have now been augmented by the Scottish Governments acceptance of all […]