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Post-Grenfell fire safety work could cost £402m in London
Fire safety works carried out by London councils in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire could cost an estimated £402m, council leaders have warned.
London Councils, which campaigns on behalf of all 32 boroughs and the City of London, said the immediate works in 2017/18 could run up a £53m bill for the 21 councils that responded to a survey by the body.
Sprinklers are expected to cost the councils a total of £262m, with seven boroughs indicating they intend to retrofit systems and 11 undecided.
Cladding work to remove dangerous panel and insulation combinations will cost an estimated £53m, while other measures such as installing or replacing dry risers, electrical upgrades and emergency lighting will require another £90m.
Boroughs also identified £8m of immediate costs following the Grenfell fire in June, including extra staff costs for fire wardens and overtime and sending communication to residents.
The organisation called for government to help authorities to meet the costs, such as extra funding, increased flexibilities for the use of Right to Buy receipts or the relaxation of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap.
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Sir Steve Bullock, mayor of Lewisham and executive member for housing at London Councils, said: “Ensuring all Londoners are safe and feel safe in their homes is of paramount importance to London boroughs and we are committed to doing everything we can to protect residents following the Grenfell Tower fire.
“As London boroughs have experienced a 63% funding cut during this decade and will have a £1.5bn funding gap by 2020, we are in an incredibly difficult financial position.
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“We are urging government to recognise this reality and provide the funding boroughs and other local authorities need to pay for essential fire safety work.”
Communities secretary Sajid Javid said on Wednesday that the government is considering extra borrowing flexibilities for councils needing help to pay for fire safety measures, but is not planning to provide grants.
The survey found there are 38 tower blocks across 12 boroughs which are expected to require cladding work and 265 blocks with costed sprinkler retrofit plans.
Never Again campaign
Inside Housing has launched a campaign to improve fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire
Never Again: campaign asks
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
LANDLORDS
- Take immediate action to check cladding and external panels on tower blocks and take prompt, appropriate action to remedy any problems
- Update risk assessments using an appropriate, qualified expert.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
GOVERNMENT
- Provide urgent advice on the installation and upkeep of external insulation
- Update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.
