CASE STUDY | Stockport Homes advises Govt on fire safety

Stockport Homes was chosen by housing department to be part of a group of social landlords tasked with exploring how people process and understand key fire safety information is processed.

Stockport Homes ran a campaign to spread awareness about fire safety to tenants across its portfolio. The organisation asked residents how much they already know about fire safety and how best they digest information. The residents’ voices and feedback will now influence national fire safety policy.

Three Sixty, the commercial arm of Stockport Homes Group, has played a huge part in the group’s fire safety work by undertaking a £2.4m project for landlords, public buildings and homeowners, which saw them supply fire doors, including installation and certification.

The construction team at Three Sixty had a unique challenge to overcome as many of the fire doors were in social housing properties. They had to provide an appropriate, cost-effective solution that met a range of requirements in terms of usage and fire rating, while also ensuring the product was reassuring to tenants.

A combination of this recent activity across Stockport Homes Group has led to Three Sixty’s construction team securing work with Rochdale Council in mid-November to complete fire safety upgrade works on their behalf at primary schools across the borough.

These new contracts for Three Sixty cement the company’s mission to obtain more contracts in the educational sector. To help achieve these, Three Sixty became a member of the School Supplies Service last month. As well as these contracts and capital works for Stockport Council, Three Sixty has worked on many school refurbishments across different boroughs.

While part of Stockport Homes Group, Three Sixty in its own right is a multimillion-pound construction and property management company, which donates the majority of its profits to social causes. Three Sixty has also obtained its own fire safety accreditations and the company is a member of the BM TRADA Q-Mark Fire Door Installation scheme. This has been designed to provide reassurance to specifiers, contractors and end users that the product they have chosen has been installed correctly and should perform as intended.

David Wright, chair of Three Sixty’s board, said: “We are glad that Stockport residents have reacted positively to the group’s campaign and to Three Sixty’s work with fire doors in the borough, which has been ongoing for two years.

“As an expert in fire safety and educational construction works, we are pleased Three Sixty has won new work for Rochdale Council and we have plans to continue our work in this sector throughout 2021.”

Jenny Osbourne, chair of Stockport Homes Board and chief executive of tenant engagement firm Tpas, said: “We are glad that Stockport residents have reacted positively to our campaign about safety and we hope this goes towards making Stockport one of the safest boroughs in the UK for fire safety.

“This will not be the end of our safety campaigns, collaboration with the fire service was key in this campaign and we plan to do even more.”