Fire breaks out at high-rise block in south-east London

It comes after a man was rescued from a fire in a Sydenham block, also owned by Lewisham Council, earlier this month.

The block of flats was managed by Lewisham Homes before the ALMO went back under direct control of the council last year.

Rosenthal House has not been identified as having aluminium composite material cladding, according to a Lewisham Council document.

The fire coincided with the release of the long-awaited final report from the Grenfell Inquiry, which found that the tower block’s social housing provider, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), was responsible for “chronic and systemic failings” in fire safety management, as well as a “toxic” relationship with the tower’s residents.

It also found that the government had been “well aware” of the risk to high-rise buildings from dangerous cladding by 2016.

While the report highlighted the failings of KCTMO, it stopped short of making fresh recommendations for social landlords, saying the duties introduced by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 were sufficient to drive change.

Shortly after the report was released, Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, pledged to hold social landlords to account for making sure their homes were safe.

The blaze in Catford is the latest in a series of fires to have occurred in high-rise buildings in the capital recently.

Last week, a fire broke out at a block of flats in Dagenham, east London, prompting a fresh debate about the slow progress of cladding remediation in the UK.