Enforcement & Prosecutions

Almost 4,000 Overdue Fire Safety Actions: What the Regulator's Latest Judgements Mean for Housing Providers

Haringey got the regulator's lowest grade after almost 4,000 overdue fire risk assessment actions were found. What housing providers should check now.

By Danny Peachey ·

On 28 October 2026 the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) published its latest set of regulatory judgements. The headline was Haringey London Borough Council. It received a C4 consumer grade, the lowest grade available, after an inspection of its housing services.

Fire safety was at the centre of it. The regulator found almost 4,000 overdue remedial actions arising from fire risk assessments across Haringey's stock of around 15,300 social rented homes. More than 1,400 of those actions were categorised as high risk. The regulator also said the council had not shared the full picture of its growing backlog with it.

RSH Deputy Chief Executive Kate Dodsworth said a C4 judgement "sends a clear signal that tenants have been let down and that urgent and sustained improvement is needed." The council has accepted the findings and apologised to tenants and leaseholders. It says mitigations are in place where fire safety actions are still outstanding, and it has announced independent reviews and an external expert to oversee improvements.

The same release graded Tamworth Borough Council C3. The regulator said Tamworth "could not provide assurance that remedial actions relating to fire safety" were completed on time. It found "a lack of oversight in the completion, tracking and reporting of safety remedial actions", and noted the council did not have a Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy as required by the Building Safety Act 2022.

Closer to home, the release had better news for some East Midlands landlords. Tuntum Housing Association and South Holland District Council were both upgraded to C1.

What this means for you

Having assessed housing for many years, I'd say the Haringey figures are an extreme case of a common problem. The assessment itself is rarely the weak point. The problem is what happens after the report lands: actions get logged and allocated, and then quietly go out of date.

The regulator's Safety and Quality Standard is clear on this. Registered providers "must ensure that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments… are carried out within appropriate timescales." That applies to councils and housing associations alike. Both of this month's fire-related judgements came down to the same thing: the landlord couldn't show that actions were being completed on time.

The duty doesn't stop with social landlords. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, every responsible person, whether a private landlord, HMO owner, managing agent, care operator, school or business, must have arrangements for the "effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review" of their fire safety measures, and must record those arrangements (Article 11). An action plan that nobody is working through falls short of that duty.

There's also a governance lesson here. Much of the regulator's criticism of Haringey was about transparency: it hadn't been told the full scale of the problem. Boards, cabinet members and senior managers need accurate, honest reporting on fire safety actions. That includes the bad news.

Practical checklist: getting on top of your fire risk assessment actions

  1. Put every action in one place. Each action from every fire risk assessment should sit in a single tracker, with a priority, an owner and a target date.
  2. Set realistic timescales and stick to them. Priorities should reflect risk. If a high-risk item can't be fixed quickly, record what interim measures are in place and review them.
  3. Report overdue actions upwards, by risk level. Senior leaders should regularly see how many actions are overdue and how many of those are high risk.
  4. Close actions with evidence. Photos, contractor certificates and sign-off by a competent person. "Completed" on a spreadsheet isn't assurance.
  5. Watch for actions that keep coming back. If the same defects reappear at every review (damaged fire doors, missing self-closers, combustible storage in escape routes), the underlying cause needs fixing, not just the symptom.
  6. Check your fire door regime. In residential buildings over 11 metres, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require communal fire doors to be checked at least every three months, and flat entrance doors at least every 12 months on a best-endeavours basis.
  7. Keep assessments current. Review your fire risk assessments regularly and after significant changes. For blocks of flats and other housing, make sure assessments follow a recognised methodology such as BS 9792:2025.
  8. Higher-risk buildings: check your Building Safety Act duties. If you are the principal accountable person for an occupied higher-risk building, make sure you have a residents' engagement strategy in place.
  9. If you've fallen behind, say so. If you're a registered provider with a significant backlog, discuss it openly with your regulator early.

How Obelisk Fire Safety can help

Obelisk Fire Safety carries out fire risk assessments to BS 9792:2025 for housing and PAS 79-1:2020 for other premises, plus fire door inspections and surveys. We work nationwide, with a focus on the East Midlands and surrounding areas. Our reports set out clear, prioritised actions that you can track to completion. If you'd like a review of your current assessments or a fresh look at an action backlog, get in touch at info@obeliskfire.co.uk or call 07407 156178.

This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice.

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