Resetting the relationship between local and national government. Read our Local Government White Paper

Joint Inspection Team (JIT)

The national fire safety Joint Inspection Team (JIT) is hosted by the Local Government Association (LGA), and funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).


Why was the JIT set up?

The JIT was set up following the Grenfell fire tragedy to assist local authorities to take enforcement action against tall building owners with unsafe buildings.

Who are the JIT?

The JIT are a multidisciplinary team with fire engineers, building control surveyors and environmental health officers (EHOs). The team is supported by intelligence officers and external legal advisors.

What does the JIT do?

The JIT are invited by local authorities and inspects blocks using the Housing Act 2004 and associated powers of the local authority. The JIT provides specialist fire safety advice and assesses the fire hazard and advises the local authority via an extensive report and Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) risk assessment. Where there are serious problems, councils usually take enforcement action against landlords, using the evidence from the JIT.  The JIT can provide advice on wording of Improvement Notices and assistance with any subsequent appeals to the first-tier tribunal.

The remit of the team has been widened to cover all combustible cladding, and to provide council staff with training to enhance their understanding of fire hazards. The objective of the JIT is to give trained council staff greater confidence in their ability to undertake their own inspections and enforcement action. Subject blocks must be over 11m, measured from the lowest outside ground level to the highest occupied floor (which may include any roof garden or mezzanine in a duplex flat if applicable). Priority will be given to blocks over 18m.

Knowledge Hub (KHub)

A library of standard letters has been created for use in Housing Act 2004 investigation and enforcement work.  These can be found by joining our dedicated page on Knowledge hub (KHub). This includes a directory of standard phrases to describe building defects to facilitate enforcement action.  On the KHub there is a guidance note and flowchart on how to tackle large numbers of potentially combustible clad residential blocks, which was developed through the London Councils Private Residential Blocks Group.

Only staff with a ‘.gov.uk’ email address or those working in the social housing sector will be allowed access to KHub. If you are interested, please apply for access to the High Rise Residential Building Safety group.

HHSRS worked examples

You can access a series of HHSRS worked examples of tall buildings through membership of the KHub. More will be added throughout the year. You should get at least weekly updates from the KHub as they are added.

Training courses

The team provide the following training courses currently:

  • Level one: The building surveyor first covers some of the basics of external wall systems, including the basics of tall building construction. The fire engineer then delivers an introduction to the principles of fire safety in tall buildings. A section is then delivered by the building surveyor on the building regulations and Approved Document B. Finally, the principal EHO delivers a section on pre-inspection documentation, a section on how to work in a multidisciplinary team and concludes with an HHSRS assessment and further enforcement.
  • Level two: The JIT continues to develop new training material in response to attendee feedback and developments within the fire safety regulatory framework. Recently this has included expanding group exercises to assess compliance and hazard levels, adding a section on who to serve enforcement notices on and when, and handling Right to Manage (RTM) companies.
  • Level two: HHSRS inspection of a real building. A JIT YouTube video and pre-course learning is provided, two weeks ahead of the training day. Attendees are tasked with completing their own HHSRS assessment prior to attending the course.  During the online training (three hours), the JIT discusses how they scored it, the evidence available and any evidence still needed. The building is scored, and an explanation is given of how the score was reached. We then compare scores via an online application. The last part of the training the principal EHO goes through the composition of an Improvement Notice relating to the building.  Attendees should plan to devote a full working day to their preparation for this course.

Please contact the team at [email protected] for an up-to-date description of its current training courses. 

All JIT advice, inspections and training is free to public sector employees.

FAQs