28% of unsafe London buildings have safety issues

Twenty-eight per cent of London’s unsafe buildings have had their ‘stay put’ advice suspended by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) for fire safety defects other than unsafe cladding. This equates to roughly one in four unsafe buildings in the capital.

Figures obtained by Anne Clarke, Chair of the Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee, revealed that 305 of the 1,099 buildings that have had their ‘stay put’ evacuation strategy suspended were categorised by the LFB as having ‘other fire safety issues’.

Ms Clarke said the figures were a reminder of the “sheer scale of the building safety crisis” and it was about more than cladding and called on the government to do more to protect leaseholders from non-cladding costs.

The figures obtained reveal that as of June, 305 out of the 1099 buildings in London placed under a simultaneous evacuation policy were categorised as having ‘other fire safety issues’. Many buildings under a simultaneous evacuation policy will require a waking watch, which involves a trained fire safety officer continually patrolling the internal communal areas and the external perimeter of a premises.

One in four unsafe buildings in London have had ‘stay put’ advice suspended by LFB.

For those unaware, the median monthly cost of a waking watch in London is £15,641 per building, equivalent to £256 per dwelling, official data shows.

Under the Building Safety Act, which received Royal Assent in April, leaseholders are protected from having to spend any money on the removal and replacement of dangerous cladding on their building. Lessees still be charged for work to fix other safety defects, however this is capped at £10,000 in most of England or £15,000 in London. 

The Government has so far announced £62 million of funding to pay for fire alarms in buildings of all heights across the country with a waking watch in place. However, there are concerns that this still won’t be enough to cover the scale of demand in London.

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