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Contractors see 56% rise in fire safety work
In the year since the Grenfell Tower fire, contractors have seen a 56% rise in fire safety work, compared to the previous 12 months.
The period has seen 221 fire safety tenders worth £661m published, according to data collected by consultancy Tussell, up from 142.
Of this, £602m is in frameworks, meaning this is the maximum amount that can be spent but will not necessarily all be spent.
The increase was largely driven by local authorities, many of which have spent the last year removing dangerous cladding from tower blocks.
There was a 100% increase in the number of local government buyers publishing fire safety tenders, up from 49 to 98.
There was also a 39% increase in the number of housing associations seeking contractors to do fire safety work, from 28 to 39.
The lower number for housing associations is likely to indicate that they kept works in-house or didn’t publish tenders.
The French utilities giant Engie is the most popular choice for fire safety work, winning £23m worth of work since January 2015. Engie purchased regular social housing contractor Keepmoat Regeneration for £330m in 2017.
Gus Tugendhat, founder of Tussell, said: “Tussell’s data shows a surge in tenders for fire safety work in the year since the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
“It is heartening to see that Grenfell has prompted long overdue investment in fire safety across the wider public sector – particularly in local government.”
Councils and housing associations have been working to resolve fire safety issues since the Grenfell Tower fire a year ago.
An Inside Housing survey of more than 1,500 fire risk assessments recently revealed that more than 70% of social housing tower blocks have fire safety issues.
