A housing developer has announced homes are to be inspected over concerns adequate fire safety measures have not been installed in roofs correctly.

Letters were sent by Persimmon Homes to residents in Iwade last week telling people in 49 homes they might not have cavity barriers appropriately fitted.

Cavity barriers are a fire safety measure and play a part in slowing the spread of smoke and flames to other nearby homes.

They are built in as an additional peace of mind.

The letter said: “We believe it is important that, as a precautionary measure, we conduct checks to satisfy ourselves that these have been isolated incidents.

“Therefore, we are writing to you to request we visit your property to carry out an inspection to confirm such barriers have been correctly installed.

“We have an approved method on undertaking all inspections and should remedial work be needed this can be done externally to the property.”

The inspections are set to begin this week.

A spokeswoman for the firm said 49 people had been written to and plans are in place to contact the rest of the residents, after the first phase of visits has been completed.

She added: “A regime of sample testing of timber framed properties has been carried out on a number of developments.

“No further action was taken on those developments where no issue was detected on 100% of the sample.

“On the developments where a level of failure was detected, residents of the entire phase were invited to request an inspection.

“We wrote to the first 49 customers on this phase of the Iwade development and are set to carry out eaves inspections to establish if cavity barriers are in place.

“Should we identify gaps, additional cavity barriers will be put in place to rectify the issue. Contact with the remaining residents of the 74-property phase will follow.

“Persimmon Homes has a dedicated team in place to deal with any remedial works required and remains focused on its customers and continues to communicate directly with them.”

The homes, off School Lane in Iwade, were built in 2014.

In June Persimmon Homes issued similar letters to people living in Deal and Aylesham Village, both in the Dover district.

They were sent out after a blaze tore through two homes in Cornfield Row, Deal, last April and also caused damage to a third property.

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne