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The Grenfell Inquiry could take years – but social landlords must act today
The Grenfell Inquiry is set to run on for years and the first round of recommendations will be limited. But that does not mean action to make buildings safe should be delayed, writes Peter Apps
I was recently speaking to the chief executive of a social landlord that is currently engaged in stripping dangerous cladding from a number of its tower blocks.
He told me something many people have been saying since virtually the day after the Grenfell Tower fire: the disaster was about much more than just cladding.
This is undoubtedly true. Crudely, cladding burns on the outside of a building and people die inside it. Without other failures that let flames travel in, out and around the block, cladding fires are not mass casualty events – as the evidence of other blazes from around the world demonstrate.
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This chief executive was also adamant that the report by judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick on the first phase of the Grenfell Inquiry would provide the evidence needed on this point to prevent another disaster.
It still might. But the message from the leaked letter which we report on this week is, in summary, this: don’t hold your breath.
The experts advising the inquiry have provided reports to Sir Martin on what his recommendations should include.
“The message from the leaked letter which we report on this week is, in summary, this: don’t hold your breath”
These are not yet public but they are said to contain issues of “serious concern” that require “urgent and in some cases very far-reaching reform”.
But despite this, these matters are not likely to form part of Sir Martin’s findings. This is because they fall outside the scope of the evidence so far – which has dealt strictly with the events of the night of the fire itself.
The second phase of the inquiry, which will address some of the issues the experts raise, will not start until 2020 and could run for up to two years.
With six months and counting already spent on the phase one report, it is more than possible that the more complex phase two report will take upwards of a year.
This means we could easily be upwards of five years on from Grenfell before the report is finally issued.
The letter itself, though, calls on “all those interested, whether they are commercial or public bodies”, to “note with care” the views of the experts – even if Sir Martin feels unable to include their views in his recommendations.
“There was enough evidence before Grenfell for us, as a society, to know what to do to prevent it. The problem was never about knowledge, but about action”
To make this happen, the inquiry must, of course, make these reports public without delay. But even if it does not, those who manage high rises do not need to wait for anything.
There was enough evidence before Grenfell for us, as a society, to know what to do to prevent it. The problem was never about knowledge, but about action.
The housing sector has made great strides since the fire to ensure that tower block residents are safe. However long the inquiry takes, and whatever it ends up recommending, that duty will not change and cannot wait.
