SPRINKLERS could be installed in all 43 council-owned tower blocks in Brighton and Hove by 2022.

That is according to a new strategy to retro-fit sprinklers into all council tower blocks on a five-year timeline discussed last night.

It will go forward to be reviewed in annual budget discussions in February.

Meanwhile the meeting of the city council’s housing and new homes committee voted unanimously to give the go-ahead to the installation of sprinklers in St James’s House in High Street and Essex Place in Montague Street.

Essex Place is not unsafe but it is a high priority after being hit by two fires in 2016, including the one which cost community campaigner Chris Cooke his life.

Green Councillor Tom Druitt asked officers why they would be recommending the five-year time frame rather than three years, which was also considered.

Larrisa Reed, executive director for neighbourhoods communities and housing, said: “This is something where we have to take leaseholders and tenants with us on this journey and that could take longer.”

She said agreeing installation details and reassuring tenants that action was being taken prevantatively, not out of urgent need, would mean moving faster than one tower block per month would be difficult.

Two days after the fatal Grenfell tower block fire in London on June 14, The Argus reported that in Brighton, some properties would have to wait until 2039 for the council to fit sprinklers.

Only buildings constructed since 2007, taller than 30m, are required to have sprinklers fitted.

After Grenfell, several councils pledged to retro-fit their high-rises with sprinklers including Birmingham where the estimated cost of installing sprinklers in the city’s 213 tower blocks exceeds £30 million.