Fire Safety Management at Land Securities

We provide full-time, on-site support to Land Securities, helping them implement an efficient fire safety strategy across their London property portfolio.

Land Securities owns and manages more than 29 million square feet of UK commercial property.  Over half of their portfolio is in London, including the Piccadilly Lights, Westminster City Hall and mixed-use developments such as Cardinal Place and New Street Square.

The issues

Effective property management is vital for Land Securities to provide a good return on investment to their shareholders and an excellent service to their customers. 

Dave Stevenson, Director of Health and Safety for the London portfolio explains:

For years we had outsourced our fire risk assessments and property health checks to two different companies.  To improve efficiency and encourage our team to take greater ownership of the issues, through coaching and active internal engagement, we decided to combine the two and bring them in-house.
System Concepts has provided us with a full-time consultant who has all the experience necessary to support our internal team in implementing this strategy.  

What we did

Land Securities’ large and varied property portfolio means that efficient fire safety management is critical in providing a streamlined and cost-effective service,

Under the guidance of the System Concepts consultant, who specialises in fire safety, they have implemented a coherent fire safety strategy and now provide a full fire safety management service to their customers including:

• carrying out detailed fire risk assessments of the common and landlord areas of all Land Securities properties
• liaising with both existing and prospective customers to ensure that:
  • fit outs and alterations meet current standards
  • fire risk assessments are up to date
  • fire safety is maintained to the highest standard
  • any disabled persons can safely use and evacuate the premises
• scheduling and monitoring emergency evacuation and debriefing tenant fire wardens
• developing and implementing emergency contingency plans to minimise business interruption
• facilitating building specific fire warden training

Jerry Flechais, the System Concepts’ consultant on site, explains the philosophy:

We aim to give Land Securities’ estate managers ownership of health and safety issues and train them to take on many of the tasks themselves. For example, we train them to carry out their own emergency evacuation drills and provide practical advice and coaching to help with day-to-day queries.

Co-operation and communication between Land Securities management and their customers is very important to the safe and successful operation of their properties.  We are customer-friendly and try to resolve issues quickly to ensure a good relationship between both parties.

What does the client think ?

There has been some great feedback, with one Estate Manager delighted with the service, saying:

I’d like to thank Jerry for his great attitude and proactive approach to resolving our numerous fire safety queries.  Always available and extremely customer focussed he’s a great addition to the team.

Dave Stevenson sees the benefits of using a full-time consultant, but explains that it has to work both ways:

Using a consultant from System Concepts provides us with new ideas, expertise and best practice, as well as access to other specialists, in ergonomics for example.  In return, we treat Jerry as part of the team, giving him flexibility and time for professional development, and including him in our team building and planning.  This way we both get the best out of the relationship and deliver an efficient and innovative service.