Hundreds of homes managed by an east London council’s housing firm allegedly went without basic fire safety checks, in some cases for years, according to a whistleblower.
Documents from October 2024 seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) appear to show checks for everything from fire alarm tests to emergency lighting tests which were either well past their deadline or had never been done at all, at more than a dozen developments located mostly in Newham.
No serious breaches have been found since the developments were since checked but the alleged failure to carry out certain routine checks for so long mean issues could have gone unnoticed for long periods, according to the whistleblower.
These include the Plaistow Hub development which consists of two tower blocks ranging from 15 to 23 storeys which, as of October 2024, appeared to have never had fire door checks and lightning conductor tests – designed to ensure lightning is safely conducted to the ground in the event of a strike.
Meanwhile a 77-home development called The Grange, which is also located in Plaistow, was allegedly missing AOV (Automatic Opening Vent) tests, which ensure smoke and fire vents open automatically to let smoke and heat out from a building during a fire.
A former employee of Populo Living claims a string of essential safety checks appeared to be outstanding, that these were potentially putting people’s lives at risk, and when they raised concerns they allege they were forced out of their job.
The ex-employee, who has spoken to the LDRS anonymously, said: “You’re [potentially] compromising people’s safety, there should be someone, a qualified contractor, that should have been checking key areas of statutory compliance. If something went down, it [could] be like Grenfell, as no one took any notice [that safety was potentially being compromised] until something happened.
“It’s one of those things that people start shoving blames and saying, ‘it’s him and her’, and [hypothetically] the directors and CEOs start getting involved, when simple planned and preventive maintenance could have been put into place.”
Photos seen by the LDRS also showed a pile of wood resting against open electrical components in what the employee claimed was the basement electrical riser cupboard at the Cheviot House building.
A spokesperson for Populo Living claimed they undertake fire risk assessments, and have robust systems in place.
They also claim they are up to date with building compliance, which is reported to every board and shareholder meeting.
However the whistleblower claims some statutory compliance tasks appeared to have been overlooked, left unattended for months or even years, or were not listed for statutory maintenance.
This, they claim, raised concerns about the accuracy of the information presented in the board papers and audits, and the possibility of compliance results being inaccurately reported.
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) carried out an investigation into six high rise buildings managed by Populo after concerns were raised.
While a BSR spokesperson said Populo was “able to demonstrate compliance and able to satisfy investigators they were taking all reasonable steps to identify and manage building safety risks”, the London Fire Brigade is looking into other fire safety concerns at buildings not governed by the BSR which only deals with high rises.
Other compliance issues alleged by the former employee include missing information in some of the building’s Premises Information Boxes (PIB), which are supposed to contain the correct documents relating to building and flat layouts, floor plans and important information regarding vulnerable people in the event of a fire or emergency where residents need to be evacuated.
They also claim there are Populo properties which had never had annual water risk assessments and annual fixed ladder inspections.
They added: “I was always forever telling them of new systems and stuff they could use to make things a bit better in terms of compliance and stuff like that, to generate reminders and where we’d need to be in terms of the compliance world.”
They also pointed to what appeared to be a high turnover of staff at Populo, questioning to what extent this played a part in the alleged issues with compliance.
Populo manages nearly 800 new homes across 17 sites, including developments such as The Old Fire Station in East Ham and Baxter Road in Canning Town.
Since its establishment as a subsidiary of Newham Council in 2014, Populo has had 33 officers registered on Companies House, of which 27 have resigned.
When the LDRS presented the allegations to Populo, months after the employee left their role, a spokesperson said it was “fully compliant” with building regulatory requirements, however they did not respond directly to the claims key checks were missed and remained outstanding as of October last year.
They said: “We know that building safety is a vitally important matter for our residents and they should have every confidence that we take our compliance requirements very seriously. That is why the safety of our residents, living in the homes that we build, is our number one priority.
We are fully compliant across all the regulatory requirements raised and we also undertake fire risk assessments in line with best practice.
“With robust systems in place, we are up to date with our building compliance and these are reported to every board and shareholder meeting that takes place, and all eligible buildings are registered with the Building Safety Regulator.”
They went on to say staff or residents with safety concerns can get in touch at Info@populoliving.co.uk. The BSR spokesperson said it passed some information on to LFB for the fire service to determine whether any action should be taken.
They said: “Some of the concerns raised by the complainant fell outside the remit of the BSR. As part of our investigation we notified the relevant fire and rescue service about these concerns, and it will be a matter for them on what action they deemed appropriate.”
A spokesperson for LFB said they were aware of fire safety and compliance concerns which had been raised by the BSR, and said: “We are working with the BSR as part of our responsibilities under the Regulatory Reform [Fire Safety] Order 2005, to investigate these concerns further.”
According to the Populo spokesperson, the LFB has so far found no evidence of any “serious breaches” of fire regulations whilst carrying out a full audit of Populo’s buildings on the BSR’s register.
However the whistleblower says it’s essentially luck if no serious safety issues have been found by the BSR or LFB. They said if the checks are done regularly, as they are meant to be, then safety issues can be rectified.
Had there been any issues, though, they say they would have gone unnoticed for years in some cases, raising the risk of a serious fire.The whistleblower’s claims come after the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) found widespread fire safety issues with council homes across Newham, some of which are managed by Populo. During an inspection last year the RSH found:
- Over 9,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions, of which over 8,000 were overdue by more than 12 months and more than 4,000 categorised as high risk
- 40% of its 16,000 homes had not had an electrical condition test for more than 11 years
- A lack of evidence that Newham Council is meeting the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm requirements for any of its homes.
