Optivo hands out £120m contract to tackle ‘vital’ fire remediation works

Heather Langridge, director of asset compliance at Optivo, said the group is “continuing to do everything we can to comply with all the government guidance and regulations to ensure all our buildings meet the required standards”.

She added: “We welcome this partnership which means we can now start to deliver these vital fire remediation works.”

Optivo has been hit by fire safety costs and reported a sharp drop in surplus in its last full year. It is among a number of G15 landlords that have been affected by substantial costs from fixing fire safety defects in their buildings in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Writing in Social Housing last year, Optivo’s chief executive Paul Hackett said that the association had budgeted £80m on fire safety costs over the next six years.

The landlord said previously that it spent £7.8m on fire risk assessments and follow-up actions in its last full year.

Separately, Optivo is currently on the hunt for a contractor to carry out ‘passive’ fire remedial works identified by fire safety risk assessments.

The £2.4m contract includes “repairs, new installations and upgrades of compartmentation, fire stopping, fire doors, door closers, investigative/intrusive surveys and other building-related works identified by fire risk assessments”, according to the contract notice.