LBWF’s fire safety remediation programme lags as asbestos found in some of the high-rise housing blocks being upgraded

As previous posts have noted (see links below), LBWF’s remediation programme (RP) to make its 42 low-rise and 21 high-rise housing blocks fully fire safe still has much work to do.

The RP was launched in 2020, with £40m. earmarked as support, but at the beginning of 2025, there remain nearly 2,000 high and medium risk issues in the blocks which need addressing, and many of these concern fundamentals, ‘Door Repairs/Renewal’, ‘Fire Alarm System’, ‘Smoke/Fire Detection’, ‘Fire Signage’, and so on.

Now it can be revealed that part of the explanation for the RP’s lack of progress stems from the fact that, as work has proceeded, asbestos has been found in 13 of the high-rise blocks being upgraded, necessitating the employment of specialist contractors.

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, LBWF points out that in most instances the asbestos discovered is low risk, for example found in electrical cupboards.

But the fact that in four cases asbestos has had to be physically removed, and in one case asbestos was found in the form of ‘dust & debris’ on a walk way, is hardly reassuring.

Of course, LBWF has a dubious record over asbestos, and amongst other things was successfully prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive in 2015 for exposing its staff and contractors in the Town Hall to dangerous asbestos dust.

But, perhaps just as pertinent, LBWF sometimes seems to be confused about fire safety.

As also previously noted, LBWF now has to submit regular returns about the fire safety of its blocks to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

That’s a fairly straightforward job, as the RSH supplies the forms, and all LBWF has to do is fill in the numbers, but on occasion even this has not gone well.

Thus, after prolonged correspondence with the RSH about the incompatibility of the data which LBWF had submitted on the low-rise and high-rise blocks that had ‘life-critical fire-safety defects’ in September and December 2023, the LBWF Acting Corporate Director of Housing admitted:

 ‘I can confirm that the December data is correct. The officer who provided the data for the September return no longer works for us so unfortunately we can’t confirm why they reported 0 in answer to a number of questions. We’ve double checked and extracted the questions and answers where we’ve reported 42 & 12 and I’ve attached these…in an Excel spreadsheet…I apologise for any confusion and inconvenience this has caused’.

Against this background, it is reasonable to wonder how far LBWF can be trusted about either fire safety or asbestos, and what else may come out of the woodwork.