Back

Building safety programme

Find out about our scheme to make sure all council and private sector high-rise buildings are safe.

Following the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy the government passed 2 new laws:

Our building safety programme is our response to these new laws, to make sure buildings in Southwark are safe.

The programme brings together teams from across the council and external partners including the:

  • London Fire Brigade
  • Health and Safety Executive
  • Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

The programme looks at both:

  • our residential buildings
  • those that belong to other landlords, like those within the private sector

Council home surveys

We're currently running a priority surveying programme on our high-rise residential buildings including:

We'll write to you 14 days before any surveys are due to begin at your building.

Southwark tenants with any queries or building safety concerns should get in touch by emailing buildingsafetyteam@southwark.gov.uk.

Private residential buildings

We also need to check the external walls of private residential buildings that are 18 metres high and above.

We've been sending a survey to owners or appointed property managers to complete. You should get these back to us.

Building owners

If you're a building owner we'll work with you to help you understand the actions you need to take to keep your residents safe.

This may include carrying out works on the building. 

If work is needed the cost of this may be covered by the Building Safety Fund and other government schemes.

We will issue legal notices to any building owner who does not take the required action to keep their residents safe.

These legal notices will insist that the necessary works are carried out. We'll work with the London Fire Brigade on this.

Get in touch if you own a building and have any queries or building safety concerns. Or if you have not been contacted about the survey and think you should have been.

Email privatebuildingsafety@southwark.gov.uk.

Contact us

To speak to the building control team:

  • call 020 7525 5582
  • email building.control@southwark.gov.uk
  • write to PO Box 64529, London, SE1P 5LX