Ministers said that putting in sprinklers was ‘too expensive’

CALLS to fit sprinklers in all old tower blocks were rejected six years ago with the Government saying it was ‘not economically viable or practical’.

Ministers said in 2011 it was a decision for individual councils and housing associations to make – but with systems installed in only about 100 blocks since then, hundreds more across the country are still without an effective way of putting out major fires.

There were no sprinklers at Grenfell Tower despite claims by the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association (BAFSA) that they could have cost less than £200,000 to fit during its recent £8.6million refurbishment. The association said it was ‘highly likely’ they would have prevented the fire’s spread.

And it emerged yesterday that Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London, that was devastated by a fire in 2009 in which six people died, still does not have sprinklers.

The claims about Grenfell Tower prompted demands for an urgent change in the law. Alan Brinson, of the European Fire Sprinkler Network, said: ‘This fire is similar to The Address hotel fire in Dubai on New Year’s Eve in 2016. The difference is that building had sprinklers and nobody was killed.’

In 2015, a survey by Inside Housing magazine found only 13 per cent of councils in England with high-rise accommodation had sprinklers within any of their tower blocks. It found that of 87 councils owning 2,925 tower blocks, just 11 local authorities had fitted sprinkler systems in only 18 blocks.

Currently, all new buildings taller than 30m must have a sprinkler system. The Government has rejected several calls for the law to go further and for tower blocks built in the 1960s and 70s to be ‘retro-fitted’ with systems.

In 2011, former Labour MP Meg Munn asked Eric Pickles, the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he had made of the cost-effectiveness of retro-fitting high-rise tower blocks with automatic fire suppression systems. In response, Andrew Stunell, then parliamentary Under Secretary of State, said: ‘We have not made a formal assessment. However, it is the chief fire and rescue adviser’s view that it would not be economically viable or practical to fit sprinklers to all existing high-rise residential buildings. It is a matter for individual housing owners and landlords to decide if automatic fire suppression is required as part of their fire safety strategy.’

It means hundreds of old blocks do not have them – for example, in Coventry only two of 24 towers have sprinkler systems. None of the six blocks in Leicester have sprinklers but the council said it was ‘something that could be reviewed pending the outcome of the investigation into the cause of the fire in London’.

In 2013, Frances Kirkham, the coroner at the Lakanal House inquests, wrote to the Government urging the fitting of sprinklers in all high-rise residential buildings.

Camberwell councillor Peter John yesterday told the BBC’s World At One programme: ‘We have spent £62m improving fire safety’ but ‘the Government hasn’t given us a blank cheque’ to carry out works. He added: ‘You do not hear of tragedies like this happening in private blocks... it’s a scandal.’

‘Not economically viable’