Huge fire safety bills for tower block residents

Thousands of homeowners in municipal tower blocks are facing potentially huge bills, as councils rush to improve fire safety precautions in the wake of a blaze in London earlier this year which killed six people. Leaseholders in one high-rise building have already been asked to pay up to £15,000 each, after an emergency fire brigade inspection found a series of potential dangers and ordered immediate work including re-wiring the building and replacing fire doors. Experts on tower block fire safety believe that a significant proportion of high-rise blocks remain unsafe, in part due to a lack of maintenance of features such as fire doors, but also because of botched renovation work over decades.