Deadline 28th March 2022
Residential building owners, private landlords and registered providers of social housing in England can access funding to pay for the costs of installing an alarm system in buildings to replace so-called Waking Watch patrols.
The Waking Watch Replacement Fund has been established to pay for the costs of installing alarm systems in all residential buildings in England where Waking Watch measures are currently in place at cost to leaseholders.
Fire alarms are proven to be both more effective and cheaper in the long term than Waking Watches. The fund builds on the £35 million Waking Watch Relief Fund (WWRF) which was focussed on high-rise residential buildings (above 17.7 metres) with unsafe cladding.
This new Fund will pay for the installation of systems in buildings of all heights, rather than just being limited to those over 18 metres. This means many more buildings where leaseholders and residents have been forced by their freeholders to pay for costly fire safety patrols will now be able to install fire alarm systems instead at no cost to themselves, saving people on average £163 a month.
