Fire Safety Upgrade Costs Soar as Havering Tower Block Project Faces Seven-Month Delay.
The cost of improving fire safety in ten Havering tower blocks has grown due to new building laws, and the project will now take seven months longer than planned writes local democracy reporter Sebastian Mann.
Plans have been green-lit to install ‘firefighting lifts’ in Highfield Towers, Uphavering, Overstrand and Parkview House.
Such lifts are designed to be used safely by the fire brigade during a fire and are required in tower blocks by law.
The works were initially focused around six high-rise blocks: Kipling and Dryden Towers in Harold Hill, and the Edinburgh, Mountbatten, Victoria and Elizabeth houses on the Delta estate in Gidea Park.
Highfield Towers was refurbished approximately eight years ago, and the three blocks on the Petra Estate approximately three years ago.
The total cost of the project is now expected to be more than £5.4million, including contract and consultancy fees, up from the previously approved £3.8m.
Currently, only one lift in the blocks stops on each floor. The new upgrades will “make sure that both lifts stop on every floor providing much better accessibility to residents and the London Fire Brigade,” the council said in a report published this week.
The scheme was approved yesterday (29th October).
Last year, the council signed off on “disruptive” plans to boost fire safety in all ten blocks.
Workers will install sprinklers, connected to back-up systems, and new LD1 fire alarms in the buildings.
New ventilation systems, firestopping, and automatic opening vents will be installed throughout each tower. Non-compliant spandrels and window infill panels will be replaced and vertical shunt ducts will be removed where they breach certain standards.
The renovations are scheduled to begin on 3rd April and will last until 4th May 2027. The council said its “tight timeline” relies on a number of factors running smoothly.
The works will ensure the buildings adhere to the Building Safety Act 2022, which was passed following the fatal Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
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