London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe has raised concerns about significant safety risks in tall buildings currently under construction. Speaking to the London Assembly’s Fire Committee on 14 January, Roe highlighted that a lack of skills and resources is contributing to non-compliance with safety guidance.

Roe shared findings from a joint inspection conducted with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) under Gateway 3 of the Building Safety Act. The inspection revealed alarming issues in a residential building nearing occupation.

“[It was a] 49.85-metre residential building, designed before the London Plan came into force, and it had a single staircase, no evacuation lifts,” said Roe.

He described a 17-floor building where serious shortcomings were discovered, including a sprinkler system that failed to provide water above the 11th floor, multiple keys required to operate the firefighting lift, a dry riser instead of a wet riser (necessary for buildings over 50 metres), and a lack of information about the external wall composition.

“It was about to go into occupation. We are all grappling with layers of problems – lack of competent inspection and lack of competent skills when constructing. This is the reality,” he added.

Although occupation was prevented for the block, Roe pointed out that earlier, competent inspections could have avoided such extensive intervention. “If that had been assessed and inspected competently at an earlier point we wouldn’t have had to pick up the pieces, with a considerable amount of labour required from a limited resource,” he said.

Call for Improved Fire Safety Practices

Roe emphasised the need for fire safety to be embedded at every stage of a building’s development, from design through to construction and inspection.

“You have to see this system as an end-to-end process from the skills people bring into the environment to actually construct – so proper apprenticeships, national centres for excellence, and we welcome the community secretary’s announcement that there will be regional hubs focused on construction skills – you need people who can build safely and properly,” Roe said.

He also raised questions about the impact of privatising building inspection, noting findings from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that suggest this may not have best served the construction industry or society.

Addressing Simultaneous Evacuation Buildings

Roe provided an update on London buildings designated for simultaneous evacuation, an emergency plan used when stay-put policies cannot be relied upon. Out of 1,329 buildings identified, just 179 feature the ACM cladding found on Grenfell Tower. However, other issues persist:

• 696 buildings have non-ACM cladding problems.
• 315 have compartmentation issues.
• 88 lack appropriate cavity barriers.
• Seven face structural concerns.
• 13 have ventilation failures.
• Three have other or unknown faults.
• 28 buildings report multiple areas of failure.

“It shows you need competent people at the start of a construction process,” Roe stressed.

Both the government and the mayor’s office have been approached for comment.

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