Health and Safety
The health and safety of everyone involved in, or coming into contact with, our operations is a key consideration in everything we do. We provide and maintain safe working environments and systems of operation, and strive for the highest standards of safety across all the schemes we manage.
Our Health and Safety department of 27 people, includes dedicated Building Safety, Fire Safety Remediation and Technical Support teams, oversees safety for all our sites, providing support and advice for on-site team members, property managers and our clients.
Dedicated health and safety team
As recognised by the RESI awards our dedicated team assists our clients to understand the requirements of the Building Safety Act and associated regulations via a series of facts sheets, advice notes and broadcast videos you can see below. They also enable our property teams to comply with all health and safety legislation and best practice.
We empower all our employees to have ownership over their own health and safety, as we consider it being vital to creating and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment for the benefit of all our stakeholders.
Our policies and processes, governance and training that you can read more about below, are enabling us to make continual improvement, ensuring we remain a leader in health and safety within our sector.
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Building Safety Act
The Building Safety Act (BSA) is a very significant piece of legislation with far-reaching implications for building owners and controllers, and of course residents too.
The BSA introduces many new rules and duties for the management of fire and building safety, and these will vary depending on the height of your building/s, with the greater number of measures in place for high-rise buildings over 18m or seven storeys.
In addition, it allows for supporting legislation to be introduced, one being the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. This places additional responsibilities on the Responsible Person, including checking fire doors quarterly and installing way finding signage.
The work involved in discharging those duties (but not the accountability) can be delegated to Rendall & Rittner should clients wish. Please contact us if this is an option you would like to explore at
Our Health and Safety team continue to monitor the requirements to ensure compliant guidance is provided.
- On behalf of our clients, in 2024, we spent 4,024 hours preparing documents to apply for Building Assessment Certificates, including developing the safety cases, liaising with the safety case report consultants and drafting the residents engagement strategy.
- Moreover in 2023, we completed 534 stage 1 and 2 BSA registrations for high-rise buildings, with 1,873 hours spent on behalf of our clients.
Building Safety Act bite-sized fact sheets
We have created a series of bite-sized briefing notes for our clients on key aspects of the Building Safety Act. They have all been updated for 2024 and we have added no. 9 re Regulator Inspections and Assessments, and no. 10 re Licence to Alter. Download them now!
Building Safety Act Broadcast video #4 - July 2024
In this latest in our series of Building Safety Act Client Broadcasts we share our experiences with developing safety cases and reports to apply for the Building Assessment Certificate. We also give you an overview of our experiences with the Building Safety Regulator and what their approach has been.
Providing further insights, Ark Workplace Risk also give you an overview of their experience with writing building safety cases for us and others. Plus we answer your questions.
Building Safety Act Broadcast videos 1-3
Broadcast #3
In the 3rd in our series of Building Safety Act Broadcast videos (from August 2023) we give an update on the building registration process focusing in particular on the recently opened stage 2.
With Peter Clark from Ark Workplace Risk we also look at the role of the Building Safety Director and a potential solution to it for RMCs and RTMs.
Broadcast #2
One of the key aspects of the BSA is the new role of the Principal Accountable Person (PAP). In this client Broadcast from July 2023 we give an overview of the role. The video will ensure you understand the changes introduced under the BSA and what the responsibilities of a PAP are.
The Broadcast also covers updates on the BSA since our last broadcast, as well as the registration process and safety cases.
Broadcast #1
In this Broadcast from February 2023 we update you on progress of the legislation and go through what the key implications are.
Fire Safety Remediation
Due to the challenges faced by our clients since 2020 we have employed a dedicated Fire Safety Remediation team to facilitate complex fire safety remediation projects.
Policies and procedures
All our policies, including our main Health & Safety Policy and Statement of Commitment, and procedures are accredited to ISO 45001:2018.
- We provide property management employees, including on-site team members, procedures for managing safety on developments.
- We work with SafeContractor to ensure our approved contractors, working on the schemes we manage, are all externally accredited to a safety procurement scheme. This ensures they all meet a benchmark standard.
Governance
The Group’s Health and Safety Management System is accredited to ISO45001:2018.
- We are audited annually by the British Safety Council against their 5 star audit and against ISO45001:2018 standard.
- We use independent health and safety consultants to undertake annual fire and building risk assessments at all our managed developments, with regular on-site reviews.
- Additionally our health and safety team conduct internal audits led by our Compliance Manager. We are aiming to complete 100 this year.
- We have a health and safety committee with members from our on-site teams. This enables direct, regular communication with Vanessa Brandham our Health & Safety Director who has overall responsibility for health and safety.
- Our executive health and safety committee is attended by a number of board members and is chaired by the head of health and safety. External safety consultants are members of both our H&S committees.
- Health and safety is regularly reviewed at Board level and we have clear H&S objectives within our business plan.
- Health and safety committee members undertake peer audits to support and provide best practice.
- Quarterly health and safety inspections by senior management give a fresh perspective which can be invaluable.
- Our Primary Authority Partner is Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service who provide additional expert input and advice on complying with fire safety regulations as and when required. The Property Institute (TPI - formerly ARMA) also partner with them.
- We are members of TPI's health and safety working group that provides industry best practice and guidance.
- We led on the creation of a public affairs group which lobbied the government so leaseholders won’t pay for the remediation of unsafe cladding. The group is now focused on changing building safety legislation and its impact on leaseholders.
Training
As an Investor In People platinum accredited company we offer extensive health and safety training to our people including all on-site team members. Additionally:
- Senior on-site managers and all property management employees receive Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) training.
- All Directors have undertaken IOSH’s Executive training course.
- Bespoke training matrices have been created for job roles across the business.
- We hold an annual health and safety month including roundtable discussions and training by both our health and safety team and external consultants.
- 22 virtual health and safety training sessions were held on a range of topics in 2024 (including during health and safety month) with a total of 3,133 office and on-site based attendees (a 114% increase in attendance compared to 2023).
Performance
In 2024 we were awarded a Five Star accreditation in the British Safety Council audit for the sixth consecutive year. We secured an impressive score of 97.55% - an increase of over half a percentage point from last year. We have consistently surpassed the Five Star threshold of 92%, with scores above 97% every year since 2021.
- We also maintained our ISO 45001 accreditation in 2024.
- We have received a RoSPA Gold Award or higher for nine consecutive years. In 2025, 2024 and 2021 we won Highly Commended Sector awards, and in 2023 we received our highest ever accolade of Sector Winner.
- In 2024, on behalf of our clients, we spent 4,024 hours preparing documents to apply for Building Assessment Certificates, including developing the safety cases, liaising with the safety case report consultants and drafting the residents engagement strategy.
TPI's Best Practice Advice for Fire Safety In Flats
The Property Institute (formerly ARMA) have an advice note re Best Practice for fire safety in flats - you can read it here.
We are really grateful for Rendall & Rittner's support in helping us deliver against the new requirements of the Building Safety Act. This includes registering our Higher Risk Buildings, applications for Building Assessment Certificates and Building Safety Case reports. We value the support R&R offers through their substantial Health & Safety team and the expertise within it."
Anthony Atkinson, Estates and Customer Service Director Telford Homes
There is a good organisational occupational health and safety culture at Rendall & Rittner. The growth of the health and safety team and resources provided show that it is a priority. Everybody in the organisation is expected to be a health and safety leader regardless of position. Continual improvement is a key part of Rendall & Rittner's health and safety plan, and culture. The organisation clearly strives for best practice and is committed to developing their own staff to achieve that."
British Safety Council 2024 Audit
Good safety performance deserves to be recognised and rewarded. We are thrilled that Rendall & Rittner has won a RoSPA Sector Award and would like to congratulate them on showing an unwavering commitment to keeping their employees, clients and customers safe from accidental harm and injury.”
Julia Small, RoSPA Achievements Director 2023 RoSPA Sector Award
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