Research and analysis

Building Safety Programme: Waking Watch costs

Updated 31 January 2021

Applies to England

Following the identification of an error, this publication has been revised in March 2021.

MHCLG collected data on Waking Watch costs through a range of external stakeholders from June to September 2020. The data collected covers a large variety of buildings but was not collected using a random sampling methodology and may not be nationally representative.

From the data provided:

• The hourly rate per person/individual undertaking Waking Watch duties ranges from £12.00 per hour to £30.00 per hour.
• The median hourly rate per person/individual undertaking Waking Watch duties is £13.99.
• The median monthly Waking Watch cost per building is £11,361.
• The median monthly Waking Watch cost per dwelling is £137.

Introduction

The purpose of this publication is to provide information on Waking Watch costs. In addition, we have collated cost data on the installation of fire alarm systems which would reduce reliance on Waking Watch and in some cases the costs of interim measures.

Data on Waking Watch costs was collected June to September 2020 and covers a large variety of residential buildings. However, the data collection did not use a random sampling methodology and may not be nationally representative. This data release is an ad-hoc release and does not constitute an Official Statistics or National Statistics release.

This publication should be read in conjunction with the National Fire Chief Council’s revised guidance on simultaneous evacuation which was published on 1 October 2020.

The evacuation strategy in a residential building typically comprises a Stay Put strategy. However, in exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to temporarily change the evacuation strategy from stay put to simultaneous evacuation. A change to a temporary simultaneous evacuation strategy relies on two key essential principles:

• Early detection of a fire and warning of occupants;
• Management of the evacuation.

Any change to simultaneous evacuation must be accompanied by appropriate interim measures to achieve this safely. Interim fire safety measures take several forms. Static measures include installation of fire alarm systems or other mitigating building alterations. Dynamic measures involve the change to simultaneous evacuation strategy and typically the requirement for a Waking Watch. Waking Watch is a system whereby suitably trained persons continually patrol all floors and the exterior perimeter of the building. The aim of a waking watch is to ensure there is sufficient warning in the event of fire to support the evacuation strategy. Waking Watch is a principle which had been used before for the temporary management of fire risk in buildings prior to the Grenfell Tower fire. However, we are aware that the use of interim measures and Waking Watch has become more prevalent to mitigate risk in high rise blocks following the tragedy.

Waking Watch costs

Average waking watch costs

Table 1 shows the average monthly Waking Watch costs per building and per dwelling for London, the Rest of England and England overall from the data provided to MHCLG. Within the data provided there is a large range of Waking Watch costs with some high outliers and, therefore, both the mean and median are shown as large outliers can skew the mean but have little impact on the median. Of the data provided, both mean and median monthly Waking Watch costs are higher in London compared to the Rest of England.

Table 1: Average monthly Waking Watch costs per building and per dwelling, England

Mean monthly Waking Watch cost	England	London	Rest of England
Per building	£17,897	£20,443	£15,279
Per dwelling	£331	£499	£179

Median monthly Waking Watch cost	England	London	Rest of England
Per building	£11,361	£15,641	£10,929
Per dwelling	£137	£256	£116

Of the data provided to MHCLG, the hourly rates charged per person/individual undertaking Waking Watch duties, range from a minimum or £12.00 per hour to £30.00 per hour. The median rate is £13.99 per hour per person/individual undertaking Waking Watch duties, whilst the mean is £15.88. Further information is available in Table 2 in the accompanying tables.

Fire alarm costs

There are other interim fire safety measures that buildings can implement instead of a Waking Watch, such as installing a fire alarm system. Table 3 in the accompanying tables shows the average one-off cost of installing a fire alarm system compared to the costs of employing per person/individual undertaking Waking Watch duties 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, over a 12-month period. Of the data provided to MHCLG, the cost of employing one person/individual undertaking Waking Watch duties exceeds the average cost of installing an alarm system in 3 to 7 months, depending on the hourly rate charged. It should be noted that some buildings may require more than one Waking Watch individual to provide adequate interim fire safety measures.

The Association of Residential Managing Agents provided a case study of one site in London consisting of 4 residential blocks and 191 dwelling units which received quotes for both installing an alarm system and employing a Waking Watch service. Quotes were received from three Waking Watch providers and were based on the provision of two people/individuals undertaking Waking Watch duties per block 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The costs of installing a fire alarm system across all 4 blocks was quoted to be £96,000 for a wired alarm system and £112,000 for a wireless system. This works out as £504 per dwelling for a wired alarm system and £586 per dwelling for a wireless alarm system. The three Waking Watch quotes received all exceeded the cost of installing a wired alarm system within 6 weeks and a wireless alarm system within 7 weeks. Further detail is available in Table 4 in the accompanying tables.

The purpose of the provision of a common fire alarm is to ensure early detection and warning of a fire throughout the building (including any accommodation e.g. individual flats). As outlined in the National Fire Chief’s Council’s simultaneous evacuation guidance, fire alarm systems cannot be implemented in isolation and must be provided as part of a package of fire safety measures. Where a fire alarm system is installed there may still be a requirement for evacuation management considerations, including on-site trained personnel.

Additional charges

As part of the study, we also asked those that commission Waking Watch whether they were solely paying for manpower. We discovered there were several additional costs included apart from paying for manpower. This included paying for increased electricity through extra heating and device charging. There were additional logistics and welfare facilities costs that were associated with site set-ups. Beverages (e.g. tea and coffee), fridges, tables and chairs for Waking Watch staff to use, and costs for extra fobs and phone contracts were also included in the charges. Other examples of additional costs included batteries, small kitchen appliances (e.g. microwaves, kettles), vests and torches.

Table 2 shows some of those additional charges which are added to final Waking Watch costs (Stakeholders reported back specific examples, so these costs may vary).

Table 2: Examples of additional charges for equipment, facilities, and services

1.	Radio Costs	Annually £6,720 or £400 per device
2.	Patrolling System	£65 excluding VAT (one off cost) and a £23 excluding VAT monthly hire cost
3.	1 Mobile Unit Hire costs	£125 excluding VAT per week & one-off costs (drop off/collection) £770 excluding VAT per unit
4.	1 Mobile Unit Connection Costs	£500 excluding VAT one off cost
5.	Training Costs	£1,000 - £2,000
6.	Toilet Hire	£100 per month

Waking Watch Relief Fund

The Waking Watch Relief Fund is a £30 million fund to pay for the costs of installing an alarm sys-tem in high rise residential buildings with unsafe cladding systems where Waking Watch charges have fallen on leaseholders. See further information on the Waking Watch Relief Fund.

It is estimated that £30 million of funding will pay for the installation of alarms in between 300 and 460 buildings and will impact between 17,400 and 26,680 leaseholders. These estimates are based on fire alarm costs data provided by the NFCC with additional modelling to account for the average number of dwellings in buildings over 18 metres to produce mid, low and high alarm costs estimates.

Table 3: Number of buildings and leaseholders estimated to be impacted by £30 million Waking Watch Relief Fund

	Minimum	Mean	Maximum
Buildings inspected	300	380	460
Leaseholders impacted	17,400	22,040	26,680

Technical notes

Definitions

Dwelling: A self-contained unit of accommodation.

Stay Put Strategy: A strategy based on the design principle that only the residents of the flat of fire origin need to escape initially, while other residents may remain in their own flats unless their flat is affected by fire or smoke, they feel threatened, or they are instructed to leave by the FRS. A stay put strategy does not preclude residents, who are aware of a fire within the building but not affected directly by it, from deciding to evacuate.

Waking Watch: A system whereby suitably trained persons continually patrol all floors and the exterior perimeter of the building in order to detect a fire, raise the alarm, and carry out the role of evacuation management.

Data Collection

Data was collected between June to September 2020 from a range of sources:

• The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA)
• Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
• The Institute of Residential Property Management (IPRM)
• The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE)
• The Local Government Association (LGA)
• L&Q
• Leasehold Knowledge Partnership (LKP)
• National Fire Chief’s Council (NFCC)
• National Housing Federation (NHF)

The data collected covers a large variety of residential buildings but was not collected through random sampling and may not be nationally representative.

Data quality

Although data cleaning took place to exclude returns that were not provided in a consistent or usable format, the datasets were not subject to additional quality assurance. Data providers were not, for example, contacted for clarifications and corrections.

There is missing data across all fields and therefore averages are calculated on different subsets of buildings. Average monthly Waking Watch costs per building are based on data for 71 buildings, whereas average monthly Waking Watch costs per dwelling are based on data for 65 buildings. This difference is due to the number of dwellings not provided for some buildings. Hourly rates per person/individual undertaking waking watch duties, ’were provided for 44 buildings, as for some buildings only overall costs were provided.

As outlined under data collection, the data was not collected using a sampling methodology and may not be nationally representative.

Accompanying tables

Accompanying tables are available alongside this release in the Waking Watch cost data spreadsheet. These are:

Table 1 Average monthly Waking Watch costs per building and per dwelling
Table 2 Average and range of hourly rates per person/individual undertaking waking watch duties’
Table 3 Cumulative costs of Waking Watch compared to the upfront cost of installing a fire alarm system over a 12-month period
Table 4 Case study of quoted Waking Watch costs compared to fire alarm costs over a 10-week period
Table 5 Number of buildings and leaseholders estimated to be impacted by £30 million of funding through the Waking Watch Relief Fund

Enquiries

Media enquiries:

office hours: 0303 444 1209 Email: newsdesk@communities.gov.uk

Public enquiries and Responsible Statistician:

Email: BuildingSafetyData2@communities.gov.uk