One in four buildings (28%) in London that have had ‘stay put’ advice suspended, have been flagged up by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) for fire safety defects other than unsafe cladding.

These new figures, obtained by Labour’s London Assembly Fire and Resilience Spokesperson, Anne Clarke, reveal that as of June this year, 305 out of the 1,099 buildings in London placed under a simultaneous evacuation policy were categorised as having ‘other fire safety issues.’

Clarke said that this data is a reminder of the “sheer scale of the building safety crisis” and has called upon the Government to ensure “financial protections are in place for people living in unsafe buildings of all sizes”.

Many buildings under a simultaneous evacuation policy will require a waking watch, which involves a trained fire safety officer continually patrolling the internal communal areas and the external perimeter of a premises. The median monthly cost of a waking watch in London is £15,641 per building, equivalent to £256 per dwelling, official data shows.

The Government has so far announced £62m of funding to pay for fire alarms in buildings of all heights across the country with a waking watch in place. However, Clarke is continuing to raise concerns that this still won’t be enough to cover the scale of demand in London.