Pressure grows for sprinklers in

● Former Scots fire chief says move should be a priority ● Investigation to find out if building standards were breached

they believe the blaze started in a faulty fridge and Chancellor Philip Hammond said yesterday that the cladding that was used on the tower is banned in Britain.

Writing in the Sunday Post, Mr Sweeney said: “If the London fire was caused by a fridge that caught fire, a sprinkler in that room would basically have extinguished it even with that cladding.

“Just the presence of a sprinkler would have extinguished it in one or two minutes. Just one sprinkler head would probably have put it out.

“In my estimation, it would cost £1,500 to £2,000 per flat to kit the block out with sprinklers – I can’t see how any council in Scotland would be saying that doesn’t sound like a good idea after this tragedy.”

In Edinburgh alone the cost to the local authority would be up to £8 million.

A council spokeswoman said: “Sprinkler systems will be one of the measures we will consider in the full review of fire safety in tower blocks that we announced last Wednesday.”

Other experts have also said sprinklers could have been fitted in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower during its recent £10m refurbishment.

But Nick Paget-brown, the Conservative leader of Kensingtonandchelseasaidthere was not a “collective view” among residents in favour of installing them.

Asked if installing sprinklers was considered as part of the refurbishment, Mr Paget-brown said the advice was that the best way to combat the spread of a fire was to contain it.

He told BBC2’S Newsnight: “I didn’t consider retrofitting sprinklers because we were told that what you try to do when you are refurbishing is to contain a fire within a particular flat so that the fire service can evacuate that flat, deal with the fire.

“There was not a collective view that all the flats should be fitted with sprinklers because that would have delayed and made the refurbishment of the block more disruptive.

“We are now talking retrospectively after the most enormous tragedy, but many residents felt that we needed to get on with the installation of new hot water systems, new boilers and that trying to retrofit more would delay the building and that sprinklers aren’t the answer.”

Mr Hammond said retrofitting tower blocks with sprinklers is not always the best way to protect them from fires.

He said the UK government wants to see the technical advice before deciding whether to go ahead with such a move.

Mr Hammond said: “If the conclusion of a proper technical evaluation is that that is the best way to deal with the problem, then of course.

“But my understanding is that the best expert advice is that retro-fitting sprinklers may not always be the best technical way of ensuring fire safety in a building.

“If it is, it should be done, but let’s get the technical advice, properly evaluated by a public inquiry, and then let’s decide how to go forward. If there is something that needs to be done to make buildings safe, it will be done.”

Meanwhile, residents who met the Prime Minister in Downing Street following the fire have criticised estate managers of the building as having been “invisible in the aftermath of the tragedy”.

The group said they were grateful to Theresa May for listening to their concerns but demanded “action”.