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Three-quarters of Greater Manchester high rises require fire safety action
Fire service inspectors have identified required safety steps in more than three-quarters of Greater Manchester’s 489 high-rise residential buildings since the Grenfell fire.
Information released by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) shows that just 117 of the blocks were confirmed to be “broadly compliant” with fire safety regulations.
Action plans were issued by GMFRS inspectors to the owners of 299 buildings to bring them up to safety standards or provide more information about elements such as cladding.
Another 66 “notifications of deficiencies” were issued. The remaining checks, which resulted in two enforcement notices, were carried out before the Grenfell Tower fire.
Social landlords owned 213 of the buildings inspected, with 151 managed by housing associations, 62 by councils or ALMOs, 242 by private companies and 34 by student accommodation developers.
Of the 117 compliant buildings, 42 were owned by housing associations, 15 were owned by councils or ALMOs, 42 were owned by private companies, and 18 were student housing.
That means 27% of social housing blocks could be confirmed as meeting fire safety standards, compared with 22% of private high rises.
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GMFRS said many of the action plans were issued for a lack of documentation such as fire risk assessments – but suggested this was partly because building owners were given less notice than usual before the checks as inspectors rushed to assess fire safety post-Grenfell.
Notifications of deficiencies were issued for 26 social housing blocks and 40 private blocks.
Jim Hutton, head of protection at GMFRS, said: “Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, Greater Manchester took swift action to reassure local residents and take steps to ensure their homes are safe.
“This has involved GMFRS proactively inspecting every high-rise residential building in Greater Manchester, working with housing providers, local authorities and buildings in private ownership to make sure the right fire safety advice is in place.
“Where issues have been identified, landlords and building owners have worked with GMFRS to put in place a plan to address these. GMFRS is now revisiting residential high-rise buildings where interim measures and action plans are in place and providing support on decision-making regarding any remedial work.”
Phil Murphy, a former firefighter who lives in a tower block owned by Trafford Housing Trust and who obtained the data through a Freedom of Information request, called for the reports on individual blocks to be made public.
He said: “While authorities and politicians repeatedly say that they want high rise residents to feel safe, whilst we now have a small amount of generic information, it is seeing the reports that will actually help make us feel safe.
“These safety reports concern our homes and we still don’t know what they say.”
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham called on the government to provide “immediate funding” to remove dangerous cladding from private blocks where leaseholders are being threatened with huge remedial work bills today.
Update: at 17.20pm, 09/03/18 The story was updated to include a quote from Phil Murphy.
Update: at 11.14am, 12/03/18 Based on information provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), a previous version of this story stated three-quarters of high rises did not meet fire safety regulations. However, following clarification later provided by GMCA, it has been amended to reflect that action plans may be issued to provide further details about a building’s fire safety, as well as to correct fire safety flaws.
