Croydon Council has joined forces with local authorities nationwide to present a petition to Downing Street calling for increased funding for fire sprinklers.

In the 21 months since the Grenfell fire, which claimed the lives of 71 people, councils nationwide have been calling for the Government to contribute funding for their own sprinkler retrofitting programmes.

The borough was the first council post-Grenfell to commit to a programme of retrofitting fire sprinklers in 26 of its tallest tower blocks last autumn.

Due to be completed next month, the programme cost the council £10 million from its existing housing budget.

Today council leaders from Croydon, Birmingham and Sheffield, along with local MPs, delivered a signed petition to 10 Downing Street, addressed to Secretary of Housing James Brokenshire.

Councillor Alison Butler, Croydon Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for homes and Gateway services, said: “Since Grenfell the Government has promised a lot, but it’s actually councils such as Croydon that are spending millions on making people safer in tower blocks.

“It isn’t right the Government expects local councils to pay for this nationwide problem while it squeezes our budgets, so I’m pleased to be joining other councils to petition Government for funding towards our life-saving fire sprinkler programmes.

“In Croydon we’ve nearly finished retrofitting sprinklers in over 1,250 high-rise homes costing £10m that we had already allocated for other services, so it’s time for the Government to stop ignoring councils’ pleas for help and put its money where its mouth is.”

Figures within the London Fire Brigade, including commissioner Dany Cotton, have stressed importance of sprinklers in high-rise blocks as essential fire safety features.

As well as the four signatories who attended Downing Street today, the other councils are the Greater London Authority, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol, Nottingham, Solihull, Dudley, Wolverhampton and Sandwell.

The letter, addressed to calls for funding towards both future fire sprinkler retrofitting programmes and retrospectively in areas where works had already been carried out, such as Croydon.

It also states that the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee recommended in June 2018 that “the Government should make funding available to fit sprinklers into council and housing association residential buildings above 18 metres”.