Sprinklers should be fitted to all council and housing association high-rise blocks in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the Government should pay for it Jeremy Corbyn has said.
The Labour leader has launched a campaign to put pressure on Chancellor Philip Hammand to set aside £1 billion to upgrade fire safety in the UK’s tower blocks.
Calls for the retro-fitting of sprinklers have intensified in the wake of the Grenfell tower fire which claimed the lives of about 80 residents - the final death toll is still to be confirmed.
In Birmingham the cost of retro-fitting sprinklers in the 213 city council owned blocks is reckoned to be about £31 million. Further money will be needed for blocks owned by housing associations.
Mr Corbyn said: “Five months on from the Grenfell Tower fire , still only two per cent of tower blocks have sprinklers and councils claim they have been denied funding for these vital measures.
“The Government is failing to learn the lessons from this tragedy. I urge the Chancellor to use the Budget to urgently provide the funds needed to retrofit sprinklers, ensuring people in thousands of tower blocks across our country are living in safety and with peace of mind.
“The Grenfell Tower fire was an entirely avoidable human disaster that must not be repeated.”
Mr Corbyn added that cuts to fire services could also limit the emergency services ability to handle a Grenfell sized fire in many parts of the country.
“Because of the continual loss of firefighters’ jobs, if the fire at Grenfell had occurred outside of London, there would not have been enough firefighters in the vicinity to tackle a blaze of that size.”
Birmingham City Council’s former leader John Clancy committed to fit sprinklers and other fire safety measures in the aftermath of Grenfell. But last month a council scrutiny committee heard that while this is now council policy the housing department does not yet have the money to pay for it.
So far the Government has only agreed to look at allowing councils to borrow money to pay for the sprinkler installations. Meanwhile it has been revealed that MPs have approved the spending of £100 million on fire safety and sprinklers as part of the refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament.
Last month Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid said he would await the outcome of a review of fire safety in housing before deciding whether sprinklers should be required by law and paid for by the Government.
