London landlord vows to ‘put right’ misplaced evacuation advice

Fire safety expert Professor José Torero said there is no reason why a stay put policy is “beneficial or necessary” and that the UK is “is truly an outlier” in not providing a Plan B should it prove untenable.

He presented a report to the inquiry which concluded it was “essential” that the stay put policy for high-rise buildings is “abandoned” because the risk of fires spreading externally cannot be properly assessed under current methods.

His warning came after the government had announced it will not implement critical recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which called for legal obligations to plan for the evacuation of high-rise buildings and disabled residents in the event of a serious fire.

The Home Office said it does not believe it is “proportionate” to follow the recommendations and will continue to place its faith in ‘stay put’ advice in most buildings.

The decision represents a major break from the recommendations of the first phase of the Grenfell Inquiry, which had said all building owners should be required by law develop a Plan B in case it becomes necessary to implement an evacuation.

This included a recommendation that residents with disabilities should be provided with personal emergency evacuation plans to facilitate their evacuation.

Peabody said residents are already aware of the evacuation plans at Andover Court, as there have been resident meetings and other communications alongside the building safety record, which is updated and sent to residents once a year.

A spokesperson for Peabody said: “We regularly provide building safety information in a variety of ways to all of our residents, including a personal letter to everyone living in one of our high-rise buildings.

“This ensures everyone in each home knows what to do if there’s a fire. Posters in communal areas are just one of the ways we communicate evacuation plans and other fire safety information. 

“We appreciate it being brought to our attention that this poster is not in the right place. We don’t know if this was human error or if the evacuation poster has been incorrectly moved from one of the higher floors. However, we are now putting this right.” 

The news comes after the Regulator of Social Housing asked this week for landlords to hand over more data on fire safety remediation work and said they will have to submit quarterly updates on their progress in tackling problems.