Post-Grenfell Fire Safety Compliance Could Land Tenants With £340k Annual Bill Per-Block, According To National Security Company.

Prime Secure – a specialist security company – has warned those living in high rise flats across London could face thousands of pounds in unforeseen costs after a Government fund to support leaseholders with spiralling fire safety bills came to an end in December.

According to research, only 111 high-rise properties with flammable cladding across London had made use of the Government’s fund – a £30m pot to support tenants through the installation of an alarm system in buildings with unsafe cladding.

In the wake of the Grenfell disaster, thousands of leaseholders across the region will now have to shoulder the financial burden of either a wired alarm solution, or a waking watch fire marshal.

However, across the UK, only 179 of the 368 buildings identified as at risk were successful in their applications.

Currently, the Government mandates waking watch fire marshals must maintain a presence on each floor of buildings with dangerous cladding; continually patrolling the interior and exterior 24/7, in order to detect a fire, raise the alarm, and carry out the role of evacuation management.

Data suggests the provision of these marshals could cost more than £340,000** a year for a medium-sized 6-storey block of 34 flats, equating to £835 per dwelling, per month, based on the Government’s relief fund findings.

The Government’s findings suggest the interim measure of this service can cost between £12,000 and £45,000 per week, per building, depending on the number of individuals and hours covered.

As the financial burden will now be shouldered by residents, Prime Secure says a cost-saving tech solution is now more important than ever.

With experience across construction, corporate and property sectors, the company has created a new solution to the costly problem, utilising its wireless technology expertise from its CCTV systems – a fully compliant common fire alarm system – costing just over £61,000 a year for a same sized property.

Prime Secure’s Duncan Cromb said: “The updated guidance, in the event of fire in buildings with flammable cladding, is to simultaneously evacuate all residents. In buildings with unsafe cladding, thousands of residents have had to pay for the deployment of cost-prohibitive waking watch marshals to adhere to this.

“However, common fire alarm systems can do the same job a lot quicker and more cost-effectively.

“Our Fire Safety division, the Waking Watch Initiative, has launched the UK’s first affordable, wireless common fire alarm system, V-Fire*, which removes the need for expensive waking watch fire marshals in high-rise buildings with flammable cladding. Our solution is specifically designed for this use and can be cheaply and easily converted to a permanent simultaneous evacuation alert system for exclusive use by the fire brigade, in line with a stay-put evacuation policy, once flammable cladding has been remediated.”

Rented rather than bought outright, the alarm system negates the need for these expensive marshals, a requirement for more than 460 buildingsacross the UK, which the company estimates will constitute an average leaseholder saving of 82%.

Duncan continued: “Wireless technology has helped to revolutionise security in the construction industry – with CCTV towers replacing security guards, delivering massive cost savings, and increasing effectiveness – and now it is the waking watch market’s turn.

“The V-Fire common fire alarm system is rented at an affordable monthly cost per apartment, with the option to either remove or convert the system to a common fire alarm in the future, should building regulations change, as is widely expected.

“We actively engage with the site and with teams to give property owners and residents the peace of mind they deserve. Currently, no other system offers this range of features, which makes the launch an industry first and a really exciting venture for Prime Secure.”

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), in conjunction with ARMA; Fire Protection Association; Fire Industry Association; OPTIVO; and Institution of Fire Engineers, recently stated: “Building owners should move to install common fire alarms as quickly as possible to reduce or remove the dependence on waking watches.

“This is the clear expectation for buildings where remediation cannot be undertaken in the ‘short term’. This approach should, in almost all circumstances, reduce the financial burden on residents where they are funding the waking watches.” Find out more out Prime Secure’s V-Fire here: www.waking-watch-initiative.co.uk/v-fire