Waking Watch – the Government Waking Watch Relief fund has been open for a few weeks now, a £30 million fund designed to support the costs of Waking Watches whilst work is undertaken to make the buildings safe long-term. There are understood to be almost 600 buildings in London alone currently utilising waking watches.
The £30 million fund will protect leaseholders from the high costs of Waking Watches, where a building is continually patrolled in case of a fire, by providing financial support for fire alarms, which will also make buildings safer in the long term.
The fund will be distributed through councils, regional authorities and directly through the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, depending on the location of the building. The funding is available for buildings across England, with £22 million targeted to the cities with most high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding, including Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.
Buildings over 18 metres with unsafe cladding systems and where Waking Watch costs have been passed on to leaseholders will be eligible.
If you are currently utilising waking watches in your buildings and are looking to make improvements to your fire alarm system to remove this requirement please contact us to discuss how we could assist.