Fire Risk Assessment in Southwark

Enforcement officers from the local fire and rescue service can issue enforcement notices, prohibition notices (which can shut down a building), and prosecute offenders. Fines are unlimited in the Crown Court, and the Building Safety Act 2022 introduced prison sentences of up to two years for the most serious breaches of fire safety duties.

The assessor will walk through the entire building, examining escape routes, fire doors, emergency lighting, fire detection systems, and the general housekeeping and storage practices. They will check that fire exits are unobstructed, test whether doors close properly, review existing fire safety measures, and identify any hazards such as poor compartmentation or missing signage. The result is a written report listing identified risks and recommended actions, each given a priority rating.

There is no fixed statutory interval, but the FSO requires you to review the assessment 'regularly' and whenever there has been a significant change. In practice, most fire safety professionals recommend annual reviews for higher-risk buildings such as HMOs and residential blocks, and reviews every two to three years for lower-risk commercial premises. Any building works, change of use, or fire incident should trigger an immediate review.

Legally, the responsible person can do the assessment themselves if they are 'competent' — meaning they have enough training and experience to identify fire hazards and evaluate risk. In practice, most landlords and managing agents instruct a qualified fire risk assessor because errors can have serious legal and safety consequences. For complex buildings such as high-rises, sleeping risk premises, and HMOs, professional assessment is strongly recommended and often expected by insurers.

Fire risk assessments are graded Type 1 through Type 4. A Type 1 (common areas only, non-destructive) is the most common and covers all shared parts of a building without opening up the structure. Type 2 adds destructive sampling of common areas. Type 3 extends the scope inside individual flats on a non-destructive basis, while Type 4 covers the entire building including destructive inspection. Following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Type 3 and Type 4 assessments are increasingly requested for higher-risk residential buildings.

Southwark Council is one of London's most active boroughs for private rented sector enforcement. The council runs a large-scale licensing programme and regularly prosecutes landlords for housing standard breaches including inadequate fire safety measures and missing EICRs. Properties in the borough's regeneration zones may require additional compliance checks during building works. The general legal requirements for fire risk assessment apply across England, but London Borough of Southwark may have additional conditions attached to property licences or local enforcement priorities that affect how the requirements are applied in practice.

Southwark is a densely built inner-London borough with a very mixed housing stock. It contains some of London's largest council estates (including the Aylesbury and Heygate estates, the latter now redeveloped), Victorian terraces in Camberwell and Peckham, Georgian streets near the Old Kent Road, and major modern developments at Elephant and Castle, London Bridge, and Canada Water. Social housing forms a large proportion of the overall stock. Common property types that require this service include high-rise council blocks, low-rise estate housing, Victorian terraces in Camberwell and Peckham, new-build towers and mixed-use developments. The specific requirements depend on the property type, tenure, and how the building is used.