Newham Council has called for London to adopt a Manchester-style Food Delivery Charter as part of a wider strategy to cut the number of lethal home fires caused by illegal e-bikes.
The recommendation was one of a raft of ideas put forward in the borough’s first ever E-bike Battery Fire Safety Project Report setting out the need for urgent, coordinated action across London and nationwide to prevent the growing number of fires linked to e-bike and e-scooter batteries.
When the unsafe batteries are damaged or left on charge for too long, they can overheat sparking a blaze in an event called thermal runaway, that is difficult to extinguish.
The report, co-written by the Newham Community Project and the local authority, comes following a spate of house fires across London caused by non-compliant lithium batteries.
The two-year project combined practical fieldwork, training, and outreach to reach high-risk groups, particularly delivery riders and residents living in multiply occupied housing.
The programme has produced a toolkit that other boroughs can adapt to local conditions, translating research into day-to-day prevention on streets, in homes, and across rider networks.
Recent legislation provides the government with new powers to regulate products and ensure consumer safety will hold online platform providers to account in the future, but there is a legacy of non-compliant batteries in use with the potential to cause house fires.
Fire from a lithium battery from an e-bike or e-scooter is happening every two days in London and it is only getting worse.
Last year, UK fire services responded to 211 e-bike and e-scooter fires, with eight deaths recorded; London accounted for 175 of those incidents.
Between 2022 and 2023, London experienced a substantial increase in e-bike and e-scooter fires, with incidents rising from 116 in 2022 to 123 by August 2023. East London, including Newham, recorded 56 of these incidents up from 38 the previous year.
Within Newham, around 23 fires occurred in 2023, a 64 per cent increase from 2022. The report states:“In the London Borough of Newham, the London Fire Brigade has reported a sharp increase in battery-related fires, causing significant harm to residents and property.”
Councillor Amar Virdee, Newham’s Lead Member for Housing Needs, Homelessness and Private Rented Sector and Community Safety, said: “We have seen a huge growth in the number of food delivery riders using e-bikes.
“That number is only set to grow in with the market in food deliveries set to grow by 15 per cent each year by 2029.
“These fires are extremely dangerous and people need to be warned of the dangers, the trouble is that these illegal batteries are often a fraction of the price of legal ones.
Among the recommendations put forward are:
- London-wide lobbying to tighten quality controls and clearer enforcement powers
- A Government backed Help to Buy scheme for gig economy for legal e-bikes
- Mandatory safety promotions by delivery platforms, such as Just Eat UberEats and Deliveroo and to sponsor battery safety checks and in app fire safety prompts.
- More co-ordinated action to clampdown on illegal bikes
Rozina Iqbal, Director of Operations, Newham Community Project, said: “Many delivery riders want to charge e-bikes safely—but cost & lack of advice are barriers. We helped riders change habits using LFB #ChargeSafe tools, peer outreach and multilingual guidance. Eight out of ten attending our training now charge safely and had stopped overnight charging.”
London Fire Brigade’s Assistant Commissioner for Prevention & Protection, Pamela Oparaocha, said: “We continue to see the devastating consequences of e-bike and e-scooter fires in London.
“Fires involving e-bikes and e-scooters are worryingly common in the capital. We launched our #ChargeSafe campaign in 2023 to highlight the fire risks with e-bikes and e-scooters; however, the rising number of incidents we attend clearly demonstrate the urgent need for further awareness to help protect lives and avoid future tragedies.”
This new charter would be in addition to TfL’s safety guidance for motorcycle and moped delivery drivers that was published in 2023.
