Optivo has revealed plans to spend £120m to bring its housing stock in line with fire-safety standards.
The 45,000-home housing association said Engie, the hired contractor, would be responsible for instructing a specialist architect or designer to conduct surveys and investigations of all tower blocks in order to prepare a detailed schedule of works.
The commitment represents part of a wider scheme in which contractors have been awarded more than £150m to carry out fire-safety remediation work on housing stock that does not comply with regulations.
The contract award notice read: “The procurement is in relation to a planned programme of works to return various of the authority’s housing stock to compliance with current (and proposed) building regulations in respect of fire safety.
“The authority has commissioned a series of fire-risk assessments and facade surveys to inform the condition of the stock and the remedial works necessary to return blocks found to be non-compliant to standard.”
The contractor will then be responsible for appointing specialist supply chains to carry out the works.
Optivo, which is based in Croydon, said it expected the works to be divided into three categories: specialist works, typical remedial works recommended from fire-risk assessments, and discretionary planned works.
In 2019, Optivo announced it was halting the development of private-sale, partly to fund the fire-safety remediations.
The G15 group of London housing associations, of which Optivo is a member, revealed they have collectively allocated £2.9bn toward fire-safety remediations over the next decade.
Image: Eakrin Rasadonyindee/Shutterstock
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