Housing Secretary pledges additional £3.5bn to tackle cladding crisis
February 10, 2021
Fund is in addition to the £1.6bn released for the Building Safety Fund, announced last year, and will be used to help remove unsafe cladding from high-rise buildings, but critics say the proposals fall short of what is needed. Read More
Government’s £30m Waking Watch Fund for fire alarm installations is open for applications
February 1, 2021
Designed to 'remove' or 'reduce' the need for interim safety measures at high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding, the UK Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, announced the £30 million Waking Watch Relief Fund is open for applications. Read More
How COVID-19 may be affecting fire safety procedures for SMEs
December 8, 2020
Dakota Murphey explores some of the ways that COVID-19 has affected fire safety procedures at smaller businesses, many of who may not have dedicated safety officials, and what they need to consider upon reassessment. Read More
Fire safety changes to sprinkler thresholds in Approved Document B come into force
December 7, 2020
Documents in Approved Document B, the documents relating to fire safety in the Building Regulations, were updated on 26th November to incorporate 2020 amendments. A key part of these changes is the trigger height to fit sprinklers in tall buildings has been reduced to 11m (typically four floors), from 30m (typically 10 floors). Read More
False alarms account for 42% of FRS incidents in 2020
November 26, 2020
Fire and rescue incident statistics for England, have been released by the Home Office for the year ending June 2020, containing statistics about incidents attended by the services (FRS). Read More
Time to take a remote approach to fire safety
November 3, 2020
Ian Ballinger, Head of Projects and Certification at FireAngel, explores the benefits of following the principles of the Draft Building Safety Bill by procuring connected fire safety technologies that successfully future-proof an entire housing portfolio through the facilitation of a ‘Golden thread’ of digital building information that is accessible in real time by all necessary individuals. Read More
Brigade issues heater warning ahead of work from home winter
October 22, 2020
The London Fire Brigade is urging people to take extra care when heating homes as many prepare for a work from home winter. In the last five years, portable heaters have caused over 700 fires and injured more than 140 people. Read More
Fire Door Safety Week 2020
September 23, 2020
Fire Door Safety Week was first launched in 2013, in response to a legacy of fire door neglect. It returns once more for its seventh year in 2020, highlighting research undertaken into the state of fire door maintenance, inspection and replacements across local authority owned and managed housing in the UK Read More
Social and private landlords urged to accelerate plans to remove and replace ACM cladding
September 11, 2020
The Mayor of London and London Fire Commissioner have called for faster action on the nationwide building safety crisis. Read More
Scotland explores potential for firestopping certification scheme
August 24, 2020
After the Scottish Government commissioned a series of independent inquiries into building safety and the effectiveness of the Scottish Building Standards system, a study was undertaken to identify whether a new firestopping certification scheme should be implemented. Read More