Tower blocks

Fire Safety

Living in a tower block doesn’t mean you are any more at risk from fire, but it does mean you need to consider your fire safety and the impact a fire in your home could have on other residents.


It is important for your own safety, to understand what to do in the event of a fire, whether it’s in your flat or somewhere else in the building. Most tower blocks are built to delay the spread of fire for up to an hour. Your building has been designed and built with fire safety in mind.


Download our leaflet to learn more about Fire Safety in Tower Blocks.

Fire Risk Assessments

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London, the Housing Executive established an Independent Reference Group to examine all aspects of fire safety to explore and analyse the precautionary measures we had undertaken on our 33 Tower blocks.

One of the aims of the Reference Group was to review the Fire Risk Assessments of the blocks generally, and ensure all the issues identified were documented and actioned as a priority in line with our statutory and landlord obligations. 

You can read the fire risk assessment reports by clicking the button below.

Tower Block Strategy

The Housing Executive Tower Blocks Action Plan is the plan for addressing the 33 tower blocks in our ownership. The Tower Blocks Action Plan was presented to, and approved by our Board in March 2019.  The Action Plan comprises a mix of retention, re-provision and disposal at various times. 

Given the complexity and scale of this plan our blocks have been categorised into 3 phases:

Phase 1: Demolition (or disposal in some cases) in a 1 to 5 year time period;

Phase 2: Demolition in a 6 to 10 year period, with remedial repair works carried out in the interim;

Phase 3: Demolition at a point beyond the 10 years period, with improvement works carried out as required.

Following Board Approval of the Action Plan a Strategic Outline Case was submitted to the Department for Communities (DfC) and Department of Finance (DoF) for their consideration. DfC and DoF endorsed our proposed strategic approach and  approval was grantedfor us to move to the next stage, which is the submission for DfC approval of individual business cases for each of the blocks (or group of blocks as appropriate) setting out our detailed proposals. 

Residents and owners will be consulted during the preparation of these business cases to advise them of the next steps in regard to implementing the proposals for the block in which their home or property is included, and, where appropriate, to discuss and confirm their rehousing preferences.

You can read more in the section on our:

Tower Blocks Action Plan


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