Introducing a Ten-point Plan for Fire Safety Reform

A new fire safety package will help keep NSW families safer in their homes.

Responding to London’s Grenfell Tower fire, the 10-point plan announced by the New South Wales Government will ensure unsafe building products are taken off the shelves, buildings with problematic cladding are identified and that only people with the right skills and experience are able to certify buildings and sign off on fire safety.

The plan includes:

1. A comprehensive building product safety scheme that would prevent the use of dangerous products on buildings

2. Identifying buildings that might have aluminium or other cladding

3. Writing to the building/strata managers or owners of those buildings to encourage them to inspect the cladding and installation of cladding, if it exists

4. NSW Fire and Rescue visiting all buildings on the list, as part of a fire safety education program, to gather information to prepare for a potential fire at that building and provide additional information to building owners

5. Creating a new fire safety declaration that will require high-rise residential buildings to inform state and local governments as well as NSW Fire and Rescue if their building has cladding on it

6. Speeding up reforms to toughen the regulation of building certifiers

7. Creating an industry-based accreditation to ensure only skilled and experienced people can carry out fire safety inspections

8. Establishing a whole-of-government taskforce to coordinate and roll out the reforms

9. Instructing all government departments to audit their buildings and determine if they have aluminium cladding, with an initial focus on social housing

10. Following up with local councils on correspondence they received in 2016 from the NSW Government after Melbourne’s Lacrosse Tower fire.