Fire risk assessment in Brent

Wembley Park has seen sustained high-rise construction over the past decade, producing tall residential towers with modern fire strategies, sprinklers in many cases, and centralised building management. Kilburn, Willesden and Harlesden, in contrast, are dominated by Victorian and Edwardian terraces converted into flats and HMOs, often with a single staircase and decades of incremental alteration. Harlesden and Stonebridge also retain post-war estate blocks of low to mid-rise construction. Queensbury and Kenton, in the borough's north, are more suburban with inter-war semi-detached housing and small purpose-built blocks.

Brent operates additional licensing for HMOs across the whole borough and has previously run selective licensing in specific areas given the scale of its private rented sector, though scheme conditions and renewal dates should always be confirmed with the council before an application, since they are reviewed periodically. Given the volume of licensed HMOs here, we routinely produce reports formatted to support a licence submission directly.

Wembley Park's newer developments generally have dedicated parking or nearby multi-storey facilities, while Kilburn and Willesden rely on controlled on-street parking; most of the borough sits within ULEZ. Tower blocks in Wembley are usually managed by professional block managers with detailed building safety information to hand, which shortens the desktop review. Older HMO stock is more often managed by independent landlords, so we confirm bedroom access directly ahead of the visit. Reports are delivered within 24 hours of the visit across both ends of the borough's very different stock.

Wembley Park's sustained high-rise construction over the past decade has produced a cluster of tall residential towers generally built with sprinklers, centralised building management and a fire strategy tied closely to a specific evacuation approach, most commonly stay-put with defend-in-place principles reliant on compartmentation performing as designed. Our assessments here focus on whether that compartmentation is being maintained in practice as flats change hands and tenants carry out their own minor works, whether communal smoke control systems remain commissioned, and whether concierge or building management staff have received training specific to the building's evacuation strategy rather than generic fire safety awareness.

Kilburn, Willesden and the streets towards Queen's Park retain a dense stock of Victorian and Edwardian terraces converted into flats and HMOs, many under a single shared staircase with decades of incremental alteration behind them. Fire doors of unknown or unverifiable rating are one of the most common findings across this stock, frequently replaced at some point without any certification retained, so we assess these doors on observable performance characteristics — thickness, glazing, intumescent strip and seal condition, self-closer function — and state clearly in the report where the door's actual fire rating cannot be confirmed rather than assuming it meets a modern standard.

The post-war estate blocks around Harlesden and Stonebridge are generally low to mid-rise, and the recurring finding across this stock is fire-stopping gaps around communal riser cupboards where cabling, satellite dishes or plumbing alterations have been carried out by individual flats over the years without the fire-stopping being reinstated afterwards. We open and inspect riser cupboards as a standard part of the communal-area assessment in these blocks rather than treating them as a peripheral check, since a poorly fire-stopped riser can undermine compartmentation across several floors at once.

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, the freeholder, managing agent, landlord or employer must ensure a written fire risk assessment exists, is acted upon, and is reviewed at least annually. Buildings over 11 metres also require quarterly communal fire door checks, annual flat entrance door checks and wayfinding signage. We can deliver all of it in one visit.