City West

The Brief

To provide retrospective fire management strategy to 17 occupied tower blocks. There are 12 properties in Salford, Greater Manchester and a further five in Knowsley, Liverpool. The properties vary in height from 10 storey to 20 storey and include 1300 individual residential homes.

The Approach

Protect24 began working on site in January 2018 carrying out a full fire risk assessments and service risk inspections. Work will be executed in two-to-three blocks per phase depending on the height of the building and number of properties. Each phase of the retrofit program will run consecutively to provide continuity. Protect24 will provide full design and build and manage all aspects of delivery.

The Result

Hundreds of residents in Greater Manchester are now protected against the risk of fire because of the fire prevention strategies, including the retrofitting of fire sprinklers.

The Verdict

Nigel Sedman, Group Director of Homes at ForViva, said: “ForViva has an outstanding safety record, and we are confident that we continue to provide safe homes.

“Our Board took the decision to invest in installing sprinklers to high rise blocks following consultation with tenants and fire experts to enhance the robust safety measures we have in place and offer tenants peace of mind.

“One of our key priorities in delivering the programme was to ensure that tenants are able to stay in their homes while the works take place and experience as little disruption as possible and the retrofit approach being pioneered by Protect24 has been a big success in enabling us to do this.

“Tenant consultation has also played an important part. By working with tenants to ensure they fully understand the programme we have been able to gain access easily to all apartments to date, while also raising awareness of the importance of fire safety.”