An investigation into fire safety will be conducted by the London Assembly Planning and Housing Committee to assess whether the measures in place concerning timber framed and tall buildings, which are becoming ever popular construction features in new built properties, are adequate.

The review of fire safety comes following multiple fires within timber framed properties owned by Greenacre Homes. Greenacre Homes Ltd work with local housing associations and on developments that are publicly funded to build public sector housing developments. There have recently been two instances of fires that have swept through Greenacre Homes sites, one in November last year which resulted in 10 people suffering injuries at a site in Peckham made up of a block of flats, and a further incident at the start of January in Camberwell Station Road.

The second fire affected a five-storey building that was being constructed, damaging 75% of the building. Following the blaze, there were calls from fire chiefs for stricter measures to be put in place, and the review that the London Assembly Planning and Housing Committee will undertake will focus on timber framed residential properties rather than commercial properties.

The Chair of the committee, Jenny Jones, said that there are many fire safety regulations, procedures and policies but that they needed to be checked to ensure they were robust to enable lives to be safeguarded and fire risk within properties to be reduced. She went on to say,

“We will see more and more tall and timber-framed buildings in London. It is critical new-builds are fire-safe from the moment construction begins, and that our existing tall buildings meet safety standards.”

Evaluation of a number of aspects would be reviewed by the committee, including construction codes, policies with regard to the planning process and current building regulations. Measures will be taken not only to ensure that new build timber framed properties adhere to fire safety guidelines during the construction process but that existing occupied timber framed and tall buildings are also checked in terms of fire safety.

The committee will publish a report later this year which will highlight the findings with regard to timber frame construction and fire safety, identifying any potential areas for governmental and mayoral intervention and action, which could include nationwide regulation reviews if findings show this to be necessary. There will also be an in depth consideration of building regulations related to fire safety to ascertain whether current legislation, guidelines and policies are adequate for ensuring building and occupier safety.

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