£5m invested to improve fire safety at high-rise building in London

07 August 2024 - Corporate
A £5m project to replace cladding and improve fire safety at 74-home central London development has now been completed.

The works at Barrington Court, which is in Victoria, form part of A2Dominion’s wider programme to remediate cladding at a total of 65 developments to ensure they meet new government safety legislation.

Recladding works at Barrington Court

Barrington Court, built in 2009, includes a mix of leasehold and social rented homes.

We’ve invested £5m in replacing the cladding, which includes £1.4m from the government’s building safety fund.

No costs have been passed to our customers.

Saleh Mirza, A2Dominion’s Head of Building Projects, who is responsible for delivering the fire safety remediation programme said:

“We first carried out an initial inspection of Barrington Court in 2020 where we found the building used a type of cladding now known to be a non-conformant material which is unsuitable for buildings.

“Works began in March 2023, and took just over a year to complete ending in June this year.   

“The building now has a new cladding system which is a safe and non-combustible material.

“Our wider fire safety programme, which involves undertaking fire safety works at 65 schemes, is on track and due to be completed in 2026.”

We employed contractor Equans to deliver the works with minimal disruption.

Solar panels

While carrying out safety works, we also upgraded the building’s solar panels with the latest technology. The energy supplied through these drastically reduces the amount of power needed from an energy supplier for the communal areas.

By introducing the new solar power system, leaseholders in the building will save approximately £6,000 in service charges each year. 

Supporting customers

A team of Resident Liaison Officers and specialist Property and Safety Managers are on hand to support customers living in buildings where fire safety work is taking place.

Maaz Khan, A2Dominion’s Senior Property and Safety Manager, who is responsible for managing Barrington Court, said: “One of our key objectives is to improve customer engagement by having a weekly on-site presence.

“I have been able to speak to customers face-to-face rather than just over email, which has helped us discuss the building safety works.

“This collaborative approach has enabled our customers to have their say in decisions about buildings and their homes.”

A2Dominion customer, Peter Wyeth, spoke about the improvements they had seen in the service they have been receiving and said: “We are seeing results and benefits I never thought we’d see.

“Residents would appreciate Maaz’s standard and problem solving at A2Dominion moving forward.”

Our building fire safety programme

In 2019, we carried out inspections to identify which buildings needed recladding, as part of new safety measures introduced by the government.

Although most of our buildings do not need fire safety works, we’ve created a programme to carry out essential recladding to buildings that need it, which included Barrington Court.

Find out more about our fire safety programme.