Research reveals most UK non-freehold residents don’t feel fully safe in their homes – Show House

New research by leading digital construction solution providers, Zutec and Createmaster, reveals the majority of UK non-freehold tenants do not feel 100% safe in their homes.
2,000 UK non-freehold tenants were surveyed twice between 2021 and 2023 to assess whether their perceptions and impressions of building safety have changed.
Only 39% confirmed they felt ‘very safe’ in their properties. This figure remained consistent, with no change in the 18 months between the two polls despite mounting pressure on asset owners and property managers surrounding incoming building regulations, such as the Building Safety Act 2022.
41% of residents in the second poll also stated they have experienced or observed fire safety hazards in their building/home such as non-existent or faulty sprinkler systems, fire alarms or extinguishers, or issues such as fire escapes being locked. However, this figure was an improvement on the first poll, where the figure stood at 68%, demonstrating some progress has been made in making changes to improve fire safety in residential buildings.
The research also found that access to fire certificates and building information remained inconsistent. Despite an 11% increase in residents having access to fire safety certificates since 2021, four in ten who responded still highlighted they had not seen this crucial document in relation to their building.
Against the backdrop of the new Fire Safety Regulations, which became binding this week, these figures are a stark reminder to landlords and asset owners that more work needs to be done to ensure issues are being addressed and provide access to legally required information.
Emily Hopson-Hill, COO of Zutec, said: “Given the massive legislative focus placed on resident safety above all else, following the considerable work of Dame Judith Hackitt post-Grenfell, these results mean as an industry we still have a lot of work to do.”
“The findings show there have been some clear improvements over the 18-month period. The collective effort already being made by developers, asset owners and property managers towards regaining trust with tenants is starting to show in our survey results. However, newly enforced regulation, the stipulation for a digital “Golden Thread’ of information across the asset lifecycle, and the requirement to sign-up to the Building Safety Regulator in October 2023 will go further to remediate these relationships as the emphasis is to ensure all stakeholders, including tenants, have access to the building information and issues are resolved quickly. It will also have the added bonus of effective asset operation, while driving up quality, strengthening compliance and reducing risk.”
The survey also looked at response times once a fire safety issue had been flagged, with only 21% saying the party responsible for maintenance responded quickly when issues were raised. Less than a quarter also felt ‘very satisfied’ with the service they received after reporting an issue.
These figures suggest asset owners and building managers need to reappraise their customer service provision to better handle these situations. The findings suggest that this could be tackled by enhancing their digital portfolio and offering more engagement points for tenants, such as resident portals.
Emily Hopson-Hill concluded: “Ultimately, residential safety and security must move on from a box-ticking exercise to become baked into the whole building lifecycle, from planning to building to handover and beyond. Asset owners are already taking steps in the right direction to digitise data so it is accessible to all relevant stakeholders for better auditing and decision-making. With the regulatory landscape changing, now is the time to up the ante to ensure their residents feel 100% safe in their properties. In the here and now it’s non-negotiable.”
These top-line findings form part of a wider research project being undertaken by Zutec and Createmaster, focusing on the quality of fire safety provision and building maintenance for non-freehold residents.
Further findings, and a proprietary white paper, will be released in February 2023.
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