Residents' engagement strategy

The University of Leeds is the owner of the majority of residential buildings that we allocate to you as student accommodation.

Based upon their height and number of storeys, the following buildings are classified by the Building Safety Regulator as a High Risk Building (HRB):

Charles Morris, Storm Jameson Court East Block
Charles Morris, Storm Jameson Court West Block
Charles Morris, Dobree House
Charles Morris, Whetton House
Central Village Block B
Central Village Block C
Central Village Block D
Sentinel Towers Block A
Sentinel Towers Block B

New regulations have imposed additional requirements upon us to demonstrate how we’re keeping people safe in and about these kinds of homes – both from the spread of fire and from structural failure. Whilst we have always aimed to follow good practice in this regard, we welcome the renewed focus brought about by these changes.

The University must now demonstrate that it has effective and proportionate measures in place to manage building safety risks in the higher-risk buildings for which we are responsible. We will do this by:

Registering each of our Higher Risk Buildings with the Building Safety Regulator
Applying to the Building Safety Regulator for a building assessment certificate when directed to do so
Assessing the safety risks relevant to each building
Taking all reasonable steps to both prevent building safety risks materialising, and reducing the severity of any incident which does occur
Preparing a written report summarising our overall arrangements and providing access to a copy at your building’s reception
Reporting, recording and investigating any building safety occurrences
Engaging with residents when making building safety decisions
Providing information to residents, as required by regulations
Establishing a complaints procedure if residents are at all dissatisfied with how the University is fulfilling its responsibilities

Your rights and responsibilities as a resident

You have the right to be provided with accommodation which is safe, and this includes:

Knowing how to ask questions or raise concerns about your building
Being consulted about the safety decisions we make about your building
Raising concerns or complaints to us if you don’t consider we’re fulfilling our obligations
Escalating any complaint with the Building Safety Regulator should you wish
Asking us for relevant safety information and copies of relevant documents

You also have responsibilities to help us keep people safe, and these include:

Not acting in a way which creates a significant risk of fire spread of structural collapse
Not damaging, removing or interfering with anything provided for the purposes of improving people’s safety, such as extinguishers, fire detectors or fire doors etc.
Allowing us access to your property if requested to ensure we can carry out our legal duties

If you do not fulfil your responsibilities, a Court may order you to pay to replace any item which is broken or damaged, require you to provide access to your property, or to provide us with relevant information.

Measures being taken to ensure your safety

Our safety management system has multiple layers of control to ensure your safety. If, for any reason, one of these measures were ineffective, there should still be adequate arrangements in place to ensure your safety.

Our buildings and its equipment have been designed and constructed to robust safety standards. A list of the fire and smoke control equipment and their location is contained in each building’s Premises Information Box. Whilst this information assists Fire and Rescue teams in the event of an emergency, you can also ask to see this. We then have an ongoing cycle of inspections and maintenance to ensure that those arrangements continue to be effective to maintain peoples’ safety.

Our Senior Fire Safety Manager has carried out a Building Fire Risk Assessment which considers each of the protective measures which are in place, such as fire alarms, sprinklers, emergency lighting and fire doors etc. This is repeated every 3 years or sooner if required e.g. if there are any changes to the building.

We’ve also carried out additional surveys of our external walls, and of measures inside the building which prevent the spread of fire. In some areas we’ve identified that improvements can be made and we’re now planning how to complete this work promptly whilst causing minimal disruption to your stay.

Additionally local Fire Wardens also carry out an operational Fire Risk Assessment every 12 months to check that the day-to-day activities within the building are adequately controlled. Copies of both of these assessments can be found in a file at the reception of your building and you can ask to see these, or for copies to be made.

We’ve also carried out additional surveys of our external walls and of measures inside the bulding which prevent the spread of fire. In some areas we’ve identified that improvements can be made and we’re now planning how to complete this work promptly whilst causing minimal disruption to your stay.

We’re also carrying out a Building Safety Assessment following guidelines from the Building Safety Regulator. This will consider each building holistically, including the building’s environment and factors which may impact a response to an emergency.

A list of building safety information and documents that you may want to request are provided in each high-risk building’s site file, including how you can obtain those relevant to your building. We will endeavour to provide any information in a format that is accessible.

Contact information for any building safety matters

Your local site team are often best placed to answer questions or queries about your specific building, or you can use the online feedback form if you prefer. If you notice anything which you think is a fire safety risk, or relates to the building structure, please tell us. You will receive a response within 7 days.

Details of our complaints procedure are outlined in our resident engagement strategy should you want to escalate your concern.