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Sadiq Khan to speak to building owner about Barking fire

Sadiq Khan has said that he plans to speak to the owner of a building in Barking where 20 flats were destroyed by a huge fire yesterday.

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Sadiq Khan, mayor of London
Sadiq Khan, mayor of London
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Sadiq Khan has said that he plans to speak to the owner of a building in Barking where 20 flats were destroyed by a huge fire yesterday #ukhousing

The mayor of London has said that he will speak to the building owner about Barking fire #ukhousing

The blaze, which damaged 10 further flats after apparently spreading via wooden balconies, resulted in two people being treated for smoke inhalation but no major injuries were reported by emergency services.

Mr Khan, mayor of London, said he would be speaking to the building owner, Adriatic Land, to push for the other flats in the development to be made safe.

He revealed that his team “had been in contact with Adriatic Land and their agents Homeground urging them as the owner of the building to resolve issues previously raised by residents”.


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A City Hall source, however, confirmed that these issues did not relate to fire safety, but were to do with the heating of the building.

The mayor added: “We will be making further contact with [Adriatic Land] [and the developer] Bellway Homes and Mace Group about fire safety at all Barking Riverside buildings, pushing for vital changes to be made and the safety of residents ensured.”

The City Hall source said that Mace has developed other “cedar-clad buildings in Barking Riverside” so the mayor’s office plans to “touch base with them as well to help ensure this doesn’t happen again”.

The Barking flats were built in 2012 by Bellway Homes, which sold the freehold of the property to Adriatic Land 4, which is part of the £1.6bn Long Harbour Ground Rent Fund.

The freehold of the land, though, is owned by Barking Riverside Limited, a private company 51% controlled by London’s largest housing association, L&Q, and 49% by GLA Land and Property, City Hall’s landholding arm.

Balcony fires have been a well-known risk for some time. Fire spread across three floors at a block in West Hampstead last year and three floors of a block in Manchester’s Northern Quarter in 2017.

The government, Inside Housing reported last year, was warned in 2016 that fire spreading via balconies up the external face of a building could “pose a significant life safety issue”.

This warning came in a report from the Building Research Establishment, which also found that existing fire safety regulations at the time did not account for balconies. The ban on combustible materials recently brought in by the government, however, does apply to balconies.

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