Investigation shows lack of sprinklers in tower block homes

An Inside Housing investigation this week reveals just 18 of 2,925 council-owned high rise blocks in England have sprinklers in some of their flats.

Freedom of information requests sent to 151 stock-holding councils showed that 87 of them owned a combined total of 2,925 blocks of a height of more than 18 metres. Among these, only 11 have sprinklers in some of the flats across a combined total of 18 blocks. 

This is despite coroners’ recommendations – following the inquests into the deaths of six people in a fire at Southwark Council’s Lakanal House in 2009 and two firefighters at Southampton Council’s Shirley Towers in 2010 – that social housing providers should consider retrofitting sprinklers in high-rise blocks.

Approximately a quarter of the 87 councils, including some of those with sprinklers in individual flats, have sprinklers in areas such as bin stores, laundry rooms and car parks across a combined total of 187 blocks.

There is no legal requirement for local authorities to retrofit sprinklers to tower blocks. 

Area manager Keith Brooks, head of prevention and protection at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, and deputy spokesperson on sprinklers for the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA), said: ‘CFOA would obviously like to see the number of high-rise blocks with sprinklers increase.’

He said no one has ever died in a fire in the UK with a ‘properly installed sprinkler system working the way it’s meant to’.

New-build blocks over 30 metres must be installed with sprinklers in England, while new blocks of more than 18 metres must be fitted with sprinklers in Scotland. In Wales, all new or converted homes must have sprinklers from January 2016.

Four councils said they have plans to install sprinklers in high rises. Oxford Council, for example, is installing sprinklers to flats, communal and ‘high risk’ areas in its five tower blocks.

To see the full results of this investigation, click here