Member News
A government minister has declined to back a private member's bill that aims to make the installation of smoke alarms compulsory.
Adrian Sanders (Lib Dem, Torbay) introduced the Fire Safety (Protection of Tenants) Bill today at second reading.
It requires landlords to provide smoke alarms in rented accommodation.
He said substantial progress has been made in the past 20 years in reducing the number of deaths in house fires.
However, budget cuts could threaten education programmes and free smoke alarm schemes.
While most landlords make smoke alarms available, they are not legally required to do so.
Sanders said many landlords already think smoke alarms are compulsory.
Last year 331 people died as a result of residential fires and in two thirds of cases there was no working smoke alarm.
In 137 cases there was no detection system at all.
"A working alarm could have saved one of those lives," he said.
Local authorities are free to do as little about smoke alarms as they wish.
He called for a consolidation of the current regulations for landlords.
Shadow minister Alison Seabeck offered her party's support for the bill.
She said there are very high levels of deaths in homes of multiple occupation (HMOs) and the current regulations for those dwellings are inadequate.
In addition there are still rogue landlords.
She said it is "quite frightening and wholly unacceptable" and it is wrong to stand by and do nothing.
Seabeack backed calls to create a joint safety certificate that links fire alarms with gas and electricity checks.
She told MPs that more than one third of fires without smoke alarms were in HMOs.
The cuts to housing benefits will lead to a rise in bedsits and landlords "cramming" people into properties with no smoke alarms, she said.
Dr Sarah Woolaston (Con, Totnes) gave her backing to the bill, calling it "a very simple measure" that will save lives.
She said most people already think smoke alarms are compulsory and would assume that vulnerable families are protected.
Jim Fitzpatrick (Lab, Poplar and Limehouse), a former firefighter and fire minister, also backed the bill.
He said everyone knows smoke alarms save lives.
Fire minister Bob Neill said the government is committed to fire prevention work, but the debate is about whether this bill is the best way to achieve it.
He told the House that co-ordinated fire safety strategies have brough real success and fire deaths in the home in England halved since 1980s.
The long-term trend for both deaths and non-fatal fire casualties is downwards.
"Of course one fire death is one too many," he said.
The strategy is to drive down deaths and injuries by comunity fire safety activity.
"We want to get it down to irreducible minimum," Neill said.
That involved efforts in education, information and publicity and the installation of properly maintained alarms.
Nine out of ten homes have a smoke alarm installed and the government is seeking to raise it even further.
"There is evidence those wihtout alarms are often those in groups at most risk," he said.
However, it is important to not just to fit alarms but make sure they are properly maintained and even a fully working smoke alarm cannot guarantee there will be no deaths from house fires.
Neill said rather than being prematurely prescriptive, "it is also important to consider how we look at changes of technology, all of which are things I am happy to have further discussions about".
In many cases deaths are caused by smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning and dual sensor alarms should be considered.
Neill said he is "by not means closing off the door to looking at ways to improve safety", but he cannot support the bill as it imposes an obligation and duty but no mechanism for it to be properly and practically enforced.
The costs to the sector "of going down route of hard wired alarms" could cost more than £1bn.
The maintenance of alarms is "pretty key to making sure effective and useful".
He said the cabinet office has agreed to exempt the Fire Kills media campaign from the freeze on government campaigns and it will continue in coming year.
Neill said the bill's proposal to place a requirement on tenants to check the smoke alarm once a month is unworkable.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.