The welcome mat is surely one of the clearest symbols of a homely environment. The idea that guests are warmly welcomed into a building is stamped on a mat and placed right at the front of the building, effectively telling the world that this is somewhere civilised. They’re also useful for wiping your feet on. So why on earth would any organisation be clamping down on them and asking residents to get rid of the welcome mat?
Well, the first point to note is that Trafford Housing Trust is really not against the welcome mat in and of itself – it’s what it represents, especially when you add in the danger of fire that it becomes an issue. Recently, we’ve been reviewing the situation with regard to personal property and communal areas and asking tenants to remove any personal items that may have been added – such as the seemingly-innocent welcome mat.
This is not something that we’re doing with any degree of joy in our hearts and the reaction from tenants has made it clear that it’s not a popular course of action. I can completely understand that tenants want to personalise these communal areas and make them both more comfortable and more useful as areas. Throughout our properties we’ve had all manner of chairs, tables, pictures and mats brought in and the effect works – it takes what can be a rather institutional sort of space and transforms them into something much more human.
That’s why it’s not an easy decision to remove these items. However, the fact is that fire safety is something that any social landlord has to be extremely hardline about. Not only is there a raft of legislation that enforces us to take these things safely (including the Housing Act 2004, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 and the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1998), but there have been horrific recent reminders about just how bad things can get when it comes to fire – such as the the fire at Lakanal House, where six people, including three children were killed and many more were injured. We recently had a fire in one of our buildings - where fortunately no one was killed - but it underlines the need to have the absolute gold standards when it comes to protecting tenants’ lives.
For anyone who is potentially rolling their eyes and muttering something along the lines of, “it’s health and safety gone mad…” then to an extent I agree with you. After all, common sense would say: what harm could a welcome mat possibly do? The answer is that it could potentially kill you. Firstly, the idea of having items that are flammable in communal areas increases the risk of fire in the first place. It also increases the chance that any evacuation would be thwarted by fire in a communal area. Secondly, during a fire a room can rapidly fill with smoke, which reduces visibility. The other potential danger of the welcome mat is that it becomes a trip hazard.
Quite possibly, there will be some who would still say that despite these concerns, the benefits of personalisation mean it’s worth a degree of risk. After all, you can’t make life risk-free. I’m sure this is a discussion we will be having many times with tenants and although I can see both sides of the argument and continue to look for creative ways around the situation (please feel free to suggest any ideas you may have for creating safe but personalised communal areas); ultimately when it comes to fire and tenants, "risk" is the very worst kind of four-letter word.
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| Not so welcome after all? |
This is not something that we’re doing with any degree of joy in our hearts and the reaction from tenants has made it clear that it’s not a popular course of action. I can completely understand that tenants want to personalise these communal areas and make them both more comfortable and more useful as areas. Throughout our properties we’ve had all manner of chairs, tables, pictures and mats brought in and the effect works – it takes what can be a rather institutional sort of space and transforms them into something much more human.
That’s why it’s not an easy decision to remove these items. However, the fact is that fire safety is something that any social landlord has to be extremely hardline about. Not only is there a raft of legislation that enforces us to take these things safely (including the Housing Act 2004, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 and the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1998), but there have been horrific recent reminders about just how bad things can get when it comes to fire – such as the the fire at Lakanal House, where six people, including three children were killed and many more were injured. We recently had a fire in one of our buildings - where fortunately no one was killed - but it underlines the need to have the absolute gold standards when it comes to protecting tenants’ lives.
For anyone who is potentially rolling their eyes and muttering something along the lines of, “it’s health and safety gone mad…” then to an extent I agree with you. After all, common sense would say: what harm could a welcome mat possibly do? The answer is that it could potentially kill you. Firstly, the idea of having items that are flammable in communal areas increases the risk of fire in the first place. It also increases the chance that any evacuation would be thwarted by fire in a communal area. Secondly, during a fire a room can rapidly fill with smoke, which reduces visibility. The other potential danger of the welcome mat is that it becomes a trip hazard.
Quite possibly, there will be some who would still say that despite these concerns, the benefits of personalisation mean it’s worth a degree of risk. After all, you can’t make life risk-free. I’m sure this is a discussion we will be having many times with tenants and although I can see both sides of the argument and continue to look for creative ways around the situation (please feel free to suggest any ideas you may have for creating safe but personalised communal areas); ultimately when it comes to fire and tenants, "risk" is the very worst kind of four-letter word.
Hi Matthew
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see Trafford Housing Trust now taking fire safety laws seriously after recently being served with an enforcement notice by Greater Manchester Fire Service.
I hope the Trust can learn important lessons of how fire laws are designed to save lives.
I am also pleased to see the Trust will keep its proposed new service promise of carrying out twice daily fire risk assessments at multi-occupancy dwellings.
Hi Ken,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and as stated in the post, we do take fire safety seriously - often at the expense of taking criticism for removing mats, etc.
The Trust has clear policies and procedures in place to ensure the right checks are undertaken on communal buildings to prevent against fire.
Clearly this is an ongoing process and we will continue to improve our buildings and communal spaces to ensure they are kept at the right levels in terms of fire safety and work with our customers to support how they can help to keep their homes and their surrounding environment safe.