More than 1,000 London buildings require emergency fire measures including waking watches
More than 1,000 buildings in London necessitate emergency measures, including security patrols, because of fire safety defects, five years on from the Grenfell Tower disaster.
A total of 1,149 buildings in the capital need measures including ‘waking watches’, according to the latest data from the London Fire Brigade, which was first reported by the Evening Standard.
Fire safety defects include flammable cladding or defective fire safety measures including sprinklers or fire doors.
The presence of such defects means waking watches or alarm systems are needed, as residents must evacuate the building rather than stay put in the event of a fire.
A waking watch in London costs a median average of £137 per dwelling per month.
The government is trying to force developers to cover the cost of remediating dangerous buildings, after leaseholders have been left with huge bills for safety measures.
Last month, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) issued a clarification note on waking watches in unsafe buildings and stated they were not imposed by the service.
Such measures were put in place by the person responsible for fire safety at a particular building, such as an owner or manager. Measures are imposed based on the findings and recommendations of a competent fire safety person, the brigade said.
Anger of residents
However, the brigade said its fire safety inspectors would not leave an unsafe building without any safety measures in place due to the significant risk to residents.
A spokesperson for the LFB said: “We understand the anger of those residents who are still living in unsafe buildings and we share their frustrations that they are in this appalling situation almost five years on from the Grenfell Tower fire.
“We have consistently said it is unacceptable that there are still more than 1,000 buildings in London which have fire safety failings and we have continued to call for action to remedy this.
“Fire services do have enforcement powers to prohibit the use of part or all of a building with serious fire safety failings, but we would always seek to work with the responsible person to find alternative options to ensure residents can stay in their homes. However, we cannot leave a building which we know is unsafe and puts its residents at risk without interim safety measures in place.
“Leaseholders are currently facing unacceptable burdens and we accept their frustrations when the cost of waking watches or other interim measures contribute to them. We support the Government action being taken to allocate clear responsibility for remediation costs, which we hope will speed up the process of making buildings safer.”
The brigade urged all building owners and managers to take “immediate action” on remediating any fire safety issues “as soon as possible.”
Separately, the financial services regulator has been requested to review the buildings insurance market for blocks of flats.
In a letter to the regulator, housing minister Micheal Gove said he was “extremely concerned” to hear from leaseholders about their experience of “rapidly escalating” insurance premiums on high and medium-rise blocks.
There have been cases where insurance premiums have shot up more than 100 per cent year-on-year, Gove told the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
It comes as the government recently unveiled new measures to tackle the building safety crisis, four years on from the Grenfell Tower disaster when 72 people lost their lives in a fire.
The insurance market was “failing some leaseholders,” Gove added.