At Newlon, we know buying a home – especially through Shared Ownership – is a major milestone. It’s not just about having a place to live; it’s about feeling secure, confident and protected in your investment. That’s why we’re leading the way with Blackout Testing, a pioneering safety initiative designed to ensure our buildings – and your home – are prepared for emergencies
What is Blackout Testing?
Blackout Testing is a full-scale emergency simulation of a building’s life safety systems. It involves deliberately cutting primary power to parts of a building, which replicates power outages, or introducing smoke into parts of the building and switching over to the backup life safety systems incorporated within the design of the buildings – these include smoke control systems and fire-fighting lifts. These systems are then operated to react as they would simultaneously during an emergency. This allows us to regularly test how essential life safety systems perform under real-life conditions, rather than relying on isolated standard industry checks that only assess functionality during normal power use. Blackout Testing gives us a clear picture of how our buildings behave in a crisis and allows us to make adjustments and improvements as and when required.
For shared owners, this means that within your building, all of the systems listed below are tested regularly to ensure they perform reliably – even in the most challenging scenarios:
Fire alarms, smoke extraction systems and smoke ventilation systems
Fire-fighting lifts and door entry
control interfaces
Backup power supply generators or batteries and emergency lighting
Centralised ventilation systems and automatic electrical life safety circuits.
Why it matters
When you buy a Shared Ownership home, you’re not just investing in bricks and mortar – you’re investing in peace of mind. Emergencies are, more often than not, totally unexpected, and our Blackout Testing programme ensures that your building is ready to respond effectively, keeping you and your neighbours safe.
Where we’re testing
We’ve focused on buildings over 18 metres high, many of which include Shared Ownership homes. We’ve also expanded the programme to cover new developments prior to handover, so if you’re moving into a newly built Shared Ownership home, you can be confident that safety has been thoroughly assessed before you pick up the keys.
Who’s involved
Blackout Testing is a collaborative effort that involves:
- Newlon’s own Building Safety and Services team
- Fire engineers
- Mechanical and electrical engineers and other specialist operatives
- Lift and fire equipment control experts and contractors
- The London Fire Brigade in certain areas.
Together, we simulate emergency scenarios and test both the systems and the response plans in place. This ensures that every aspect of building safety is covered, and that shared owners benefit from the highest standards of protection.
Leading the way
We believe Newlon is the only housing association currently carrying out this level of full-scale, dynamic blackout testing. It’s a bold step, but one we’re proud to take to protect our residents – including our growing community of shared owners. By investing in this kind of proactive safety testing, we’re not just meeting expectations – we’re exceeding them. Because when you own a home with Newlon, you deserve to know that your safety is built into every aspect of your building.
Discover your new home with Newlon Living
Newlon Living offers high-specification new build and resale homes for Shared Ownership in prime locations across north and east London. Our expert sales team is here to guide you through every step of the buying journey, making it easy to find and settle into your perfect home.
To learn more about buying a Shared
Ownership property with Newlon Living, visit newlonliving.co.uk
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