黑洞社区

Housing association L&Q has said it is carrying extra checks on its properties of six storeys or more following last month鈥檚 Grenfell Tower fire.

The blaze in west London has so far claimed 80 lives.

Waqar Ahmed, group director of finance at the firm, whichmerged with East Thames last December and now owns and manages more than 90,000 homes across London and the South East, said: 鈥淲e visit sheltered housing schemes and tower blocks once a year to review fire safety. However, we are carrying out additional safety reviews of all blocks over six storeys. We have taken the extra precaution of surveying the cladding on these blocks.鈥�

Earlier this year, L&Q bought land business Gallagher Estates to take its total number of development plots to over 85,000. L&Q and London mayor Sadiq Khan recently announced a strategic partnership to invest 拢8bn in 20,000 new homes across the capital.

The firm has reported a record 拢332m surplus in its latest results, a 拢53m increase on the previous year.

The housing group, which has a planned construction pipeline of 100,000 new homes, also increased turnover 20% to 拢756m for the year to March 2017.

Non-social housing revenue increased to 26% from 23% in the previous period.

During the year, L&Q completed 2,552 new homes, of which 1,536 were affordable. 黑洞社区 work started on 2,590 homes, and a further 4,190 were approved.