FIREFIGHTERS warned yesterday that “unscrupulous landlords” are putting lives at risk as new research shows that one in five privately rented homes are not fitted with smoke alarms.

Data from the English Housing Survey show that in the last decade the proportion of owner-occupied households with a working smoke alarm has risen from 83 per cent to 88 per cent, and local authority tenants with smoke alarms have also gone up from 80 per cent to 92 per cent.

But privately rented accommodation has not seen an increase.