How quickly can you arrange a fire risk assessment in Tower Hamlets?

Standard bookings in Tower Hamlets are confirmed within one working day. For PPM contract customers, emergency call-outs (fire alarm fault, enforcement notice, post-incident) carry a 4-working-hour response.

My rented house in Tower Hamlets has three sharers — does the licensing scheme change what I need?

Probably. Under the council’s borough-wide additional licensing scheme (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029), a property occupied by three or more people forming two or more households who share facilities needs an HMO licence. A licence is not a fire risk assessment, though — the shared parts of an HMO fall under the Fire Safety Order regardless, and a current FRA is the practical way to evidence your fire precautions. Scheme boundaries and thresholds change, so check the council’s scheme pages before applying.

How often does my FRA need reviewing?

There is no fixed cadence in law, but the FRA must be kept "under review". Industry good practice is a full review annually for higher-risk premises and at every material change of use, layout or occupancy.

Do I need a Type 4 FRA?

Not always. Type 1 is the default for most blocks. Type 4 (intrusive, sampling within flats and common areas) is appropriate where there is reason to suspect concealed compartmentation defects.

Fire Risk Assessments in Tower Hamlets

Fire Risk Assessments in Tower Hamlets: what’s different here

Tower Hamlets’ homes are overwhelmingly purpose-built flats rather than houses. That shapes what an assessment here has to cover: since the Fire Safety Act 2021, the structure, external walls and flat entrance doors are explicitly in scope alongside the common parts, and the borough’s high-rise stock adds Building Safety Act duties on top. For fire risk assessments in Tower Hamlets — from a Whitechapel shared house to a Canary Wharf block — our assessors are NFRAR-registered, working to PAS 79-1 for non-domestic stock and BS 9792:2025 for housing.

Tower Hamlets runs a borough-wide additional HMO licensing scheme from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029: a property let to three or more people forming two or more households who share a kitchen or bathroom needs a licence, as do flats with five or more tenants in purpose-built blocks of three or more flats. Designations lapse and renew — the council’s licensing pages are the source of truth.
At the 2021 Census, 81% of the borough’s households lived in purpose-built flats and only 12% in a house — the second-highest flat share in England and Wales. For most residential FRAs here, the full Fire Safety Act 2021 scope applies, not just the common parts.
The same census put Tower Hamlets top of England for population density (15,695 residents per square kilometre) after a decade in which its population grew faster than anywhere else in the country. Fast-growing, recently altered stock means many buildings need a first FRA at occupation — or a review after works.
The fire and rescue authority is the London Fire Brigade, and residential buildings of 18 metres or seven storeys also fall under the Building Safety Regulator’s Accountable Person regime introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022.

Fire Risk Assessments for Tower Hamlets buildings

A Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) is the legal cornerstone of UK fire safety. Under Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Responsible Person must carry out — and keep under review — a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks from fire. MetroFire delivers Type 1 to Type 4 FRAs for commercial, residential and infrastructure assets, with assessors registered on the IFSM's National Fire Risk Assessors Register (NFRAR) and aligned to BS 8674:2025 — the new British Standard for individual assessor competence (Foundation / Intermediate / Advanced tiers matched to building risk).

Whether you call it a fire risk assessment or a fire safety assessment, the duty is the same — and we assess offices, HMOs, blocks of flats, shops and mixed-use buildings, from a single premises to a managed portfolio.

What we deliver in Tower Hamlets

Site walkover with the duty holder, identifying fire hazards, people at risk and existing precautions.
Methodology aligned to PAS 79-1 (non-domestic) and BS 9792:2025 (housing) with photographic evidence.
Action plan prioritised by risk (Intolerable / Substantial / Moderate / Tolerable / Trivial).
Assessor competence demonstrated via NFRAR registration (Foundation / Intermediate / Advanced) and BS 8674:2025 SKEB criteria — Skills, Knowledge, Experience, Behaviours.
Digital report delivered via secure dashboard with annual review reminders and CPD-audited methodology.
Type 2/3/4 destructive surveys available where intrusive investigation is needed.

Why this matters in Tower Hamlets

Since the Fire Safety Act 2021, the scope of the FRA explicitly includes the building structure, external walls and flat entrance doors of multi-occupied residential buildings. The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced parallel Accountable Person duties for higher-risk residential buildings (18m+ or 7+ storeys). And from April 2026, BAFE SP205 V6.0 became the in-force life-safety FRA scheme — raising the bar for organisational competence. Failure to comply can mean unlimited fines and, since the Grenfell reforms, prosecution of Responsible Persons.

Standards we work to

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005Fire Safety Act 2021Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022PAS 79-1 (non-domestic) & BS 9792:2025 (housing)BS 8674:2025 — assessor competence frameworkNFRAR (IFSM National Fire Risk Assessors Register)Aligned to BAFE SP205 V6.0 (not BAFE-certified)

Frequently asked

Cost depends on building size, complexity and access. Most bookings in Tower Hamlets are quoted within one working day of survey — call 0208 059 4836 for an immediate ball-park.