The recent tragic fire at Lakanal House, Camberwell in which six people died, has prompted a nationwide review of fire safety throughout the public and private sectors.

Whilst the investigation into the causes and spread of the fire will not conclude until later this year, many landlords, education and health authorities are hurrying to review their obligations under the 2005 Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order and are putting in place new inspection and maintenance regimes.

Similarly, they are increasingly recognising their responsibilities under item 9 of BS8213 governing the cleaning and maintenance of windows, doors and roofsets, and there are now large scale risk assessments scheduled or already happening across the UK encompassing structural and planning issues as well as detailed reviews of window and door safety.

Whilst the legislation has long been in place to compel authorities to assess these risks, it seems all too often that it is only when a tragedy makes the headlines, that the shortcomings in many inspection regimes are revealed.

For Mila Maintenance, which is the specialist window and door maintenance division within Mila Hardware providing regular and emergency maintenance for clients throughout the social housing sector, these are very busy times.

We have teams of NVQ qualified engineers operating nationwide which can provide the necessary safety risk assessments and carry out a full programme of window and door repair, refurbishment and, where required, replacement.

For example, since the Lakanal House fire, Mila Maintenance has already been appointed by Kirklees Council to carry out an inspection and maintenance programme at all of the multi-storey blocks managed on its behalf by Kirklees Housing.

Our team of NVQ qualified engineers has begun a series of twice yearly inspections to identify any doors which are damaged or not operating correctly, whether that is because of damaged or missing fire seals, door closers or glazing.

We are then putting together repair schedules based on these findings which will include the installation of specialist intumescent fire, smoke and threshold seals supplied by our partner Lorient Polyproducts. As well as fire safety, we also of course address the general area of window and door safety, particularly in high rise blocks where there are sadly still regular reports of accidents and near misses involving falls from windows which are not properly secured.

We have just completed a nationwide contract to fit safety restrictors on all of the opening sashes in windows at care homes managed by Anchor Trust to eliminate any ongoing risk to its residents from open windows.

Anchor Care Homes is acting in line with its statutory obligations under item 9 of BS8213 to carry out regular inspections of the windows and associated hardware in its properties to ensure the ongoing safety and security of its sometimes vulnerable residents.

At the start of 2009, Project Surveyor Damian Cassidy and the Trust’s Health & Safety team decided that lockable safety restrictors were the most appropriate solution to maximise the safety of all its windows; and they approached Mila Maintenance to help decide on both the specification of the restrictors required and an installation programme for the 96 Anchor Care homes across England.

Mila had an established relationship with Anchor Trust, having carried out window and door maintenance programmes at other Trust owned properties in previous years, and also as an approved window and door maintenance contractor for the LHC Network, of which Anchor is a member.

Mila Maintenance is in fact one of the very few companies in the UK with the resources and capacity to carry out such a large scale programme in 96 separate homes, which was completed on time and on budget.

The 96 Anchor Care homes where the window restrictors have been fitted are up to four storeys high and feature a range of different styles and sizes of windows in a mix of PVC-U, timber, steel and aluminium.

Mila’s experience meant that we were able to recommend appropriate installation methods for each of the different window materials and at the same time could identify any further problems or necessary maintenance on the windows as the contract progressed.

In the window and door hardware sector, the maintenance market is often overlooked as a potential source of valuable new business. However, it is a market with vast growth opportunities – driven not just by legislative pressures but by the growing need for social housing providers to choose repair rather than replacement in order to maximise their budgets.

Mila Maintenance’s business model shows how the market can be targeted successfully and our experience and expertise gives us a huge competitive advantage.