Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many meetings his Department has had with representatives of house building companies on the introduction of fire sprinklers in each year for which information is available.

Officials and Ministers regularly meet with representatives of house building companies to discuss a wide range of issues. We are not aware of any meetings specifically to discuss the introduction of fire sprinklers.

The Department did write to all social housing providers in 2013 following the recommendations in a Coroner’s report into firefighter deaths which occurred at Shirley Towers in Southampton in April 2010. That letter encouraged providers to consider the retrofitting of sprinklers in older residential tower blocks. The Department then reinforced the content of that letter in its response to the Coroner’s report into the Lakanal House Fire – a copy of which can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/205567/Annex_B_-_SoS_DCLG_Rule_43_response.pdf