London councils plan £380m in fire safety improvements
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21 November 2017
A report by BBC Radio London has found that councils from around the capital will spend almost £400m on fire safety improvements in social housing.
Of 33 London boroughs contacted following the disaster in June, 26 responded with estimated costings.
Four boroughs said it was too early to know how much they would be spending. Two councils had no council housing to implement additional fire safety measures to.
Measures councils have started implementing range from the removal of cladding and installation of fire doors and smoke alarms, to 24-hour security patrols on some blocks.
Other costs include removing people from their homes and temporarily re-housing them for safety reasons.
Ten councils are planning to put in sprinklers, with a further 11 considering installing sprinklers in council housing blocks.
Croydon has already started the process of installing sprinklers in 25 blocks over 10 storeys high at a cost of £10m.
However, Wandsworth has even bigger plans - to retrofit sprinklers in all 99 of its council blocks - which along with removing cladding, will cost it about £30m.
A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government said "councils should contact the DCLG to discuss their position if they have any concerns about funding fire safety works".
"Building owners are responsible for ensuring their buildings are fire safe and we expect them to fund fire safety measures," the spokesperson added.
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