Fire sprinklers in all new buildings

An MP from Lowestoft in Suffolk is calling on laws to be changed so that automatic fire sprinklers are made mandatory in all new homes and buildings.

Waveney MP Peter Aldous is calling on the government to require that sprinklers be fitted to all new residential and commercial buildings to prevent a repeat of a fire that recently ripped through a food factory in Lowestoft. The Wessex Foods burger factory was badly damaged in July last year, with more than 100 firefighters required to tackle the blaze.

In a House of Commons debate this week, Mr Aldous said sprinklers need to be fitted in all new buildings because of the cuts being made to fire services, the Eastern Daily Press reports. Speaking to the news provider, the MP said: "Despite the size of the building, at approximately 5,000 square metres, and the use to which it was put, sprinklers had not been fitted. "If they had been the outcome would have been completely different."

Currently, the law stipulates that buildings in England only require sprinklers if they are more than 20,000 square metres in size.