“Stay put” advice has been suspended on 50 unsafe buildings in Lambeth as of May, according to new figures. Temporary simultaneous evacuation strategies – meaning residents are advised to vacate the building quickly – have now been put in place and these buildings also have waking watches or an evacuation management system. On the back of the data, provided by the Mayor of London, local London Assembly Member, Marina Ahmad AM, said Lambeth residents stuck in unsafe buildings were in a “purgatory”. She went on to urge the Government to “stump up” the cost of remediations and claw it back from developers.
Newly provided figures from the Mayor of London reveal that last month, there were a total of 870 buildings in the capital with waking watches and a simultaneous evacuation strategy due to fire safety defects and unsafe cladding. This includes 50 in Lambeth.
At June’s London Assembly Plenary meeting (Thursday 10th June), the Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade (LFB), Andy Roe, revealed that there are around 62,000 properties posing a fire-risk in London alone, with 8,000 of these being residential high-rises. During the meeting, he called for more funding from the Government in the next Comprehensive Spending Review to reflect the scale of the LFB’s fire safety monitoring work.
In most apartment buildings that are over 11m in height, ‘stay put’ advice is in place for occupants as it has been assessed that a fire can be contained in an individual space or flat.
A simultaneous evacuation means that in the case of a fire occurring all residents must leave as quickly and safely as possible because there is a strong risk of fire spread. A simultaneous evacuation strategy is put in place in a building if a fire risk assessment finds that construction defects, including unsafe cladding, mean a fire could travel quickly between individual dwellings- as happened at Grenfell.
A waking watch may be required in buildings with a simultaneous evacuation strategy, in which marshals continually patrol the floors and the exterior of the building.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase One report, published in 2019, concluded that the use of ‘stay put’ advice during the fire stopped dozens of residents from evacuating and ultimately cost lives.
Local London Assembly Member, Marina Ahmad AM, said:
“For people in Lambeth who are stuck in unsafe buildings, this is a never ending nightmare.
“We’re now four years on from the Grenfell Tower Tragedy yet this purgatory continues. Government support has been totally inadequate and too slow to arrive, meaning leaseholders are still footing the bill for remediation works, spiralling insurance premiums and costly waking watches.
“Those living this nightmare are at the mercy of the Government and developers who now need to show willing to stump up the costs of remediation work. We don’t expect the Government to be left out of pocket, we expect them to claw this money back from developers, but they’re at the very least in a position to do that – ordinary residents in Lambeth are not.”
Notes to editors
- A table showing the number of buildings in each borough with a temporary simultaneous evacuation strategy and waking watches or an evacuation management system (in the form of personnel on site or a remote monitoring system) in place can be found here. These figures were obtained through a written question to the Mayor of London submitted by Anne Clarke AM;
- At last week’s London Assembly Plenary session (Thursday 10th June), the Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, Andy Roe, revealed that there are around 62,000 properties posing a fire-risk in London alone, with 8,000 of these being residential high-rises. He called for more funding from the Government in the next Comprehensive Spending Review to reflect the scale of the LFB’s fire safety monitoring work. Andy Roe’s comments which start at 57:30 mins in, can be watched back here;
- Guidance regarding simultaneous evacuation strategies from the National Fire Chiefs Council can be found here. More information about waking watches can be found here;
- Guidance regarding stay put advice from the National Fire Chiefs Council can be found here;
- A copy of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase One report, can be found here;
- Marina Ahmad AM is the London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark