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Time to put safety at the top of the priority list

David Montague asks whether the sector needs to rethink its priorities post-Grenfell

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Time to get our priorities in order after Grenfell, by David Montague

On 14 June, a date which will stay with us forever, we awoke to the terrible news.

The first thing anyone thinks about when a tragedy like this occurs is the unimaginable horror, the profound and desperate grief of family, friends and community.

The second is “what if it was me, my family, my loved ones, my friends?”.

But for those of us involved in housing, a third thought comes to mind: “What if I was responsible for a tragedy like this?”

The sector has thought and spoken of little else since that day. And it seems that government has thought of little else as well.


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Discussions about rent flexibility, housing supply and funding for supported housing seem to have been put on hold. At some point soon we must return to these discussions, but now our efforts are rightly devoted to ensuring that nothing like Grenfell ever happens again.

I joined a panel at Housing 2017 in Manchester to talk about the impact of Grenfell on the sector. On the same panel was a man called Sam Webb.

Mr Webb, an architect, was involved in the original design and approval of Grenfell Tower. He spoke with great sadness about how, in his view, health and safety had become a subject of ridicule over the years; and about how it has to be an incident such as this which brings us back to our senses.

“Our whole world has changed.”

He spoke about going to the cinema with his mother when he was a boy. On the screen he remembered a girl named Dorothy opening her curtains, peering out of the window and saying to her dog Toto: “I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”

As a sector, as a country, we are not in Kansas anymore. Our whole world has changed.

As Mr Webb spoke it reminded me of the speech which Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, gave to the United States Congress following several fatal car accidents and the recall of 7.5 million vehicles in 2010.

Toyota’s priorities, said Mr Toyoda, were safety first, quality second and volume third. But we seem to have got our priorities confused.

Perhaps this is the point when all of us need to stand back and ask if we have our priorities right. There is a desperate need for new homes. We can and we must put the housing crisis behind us once and for all. But we have to do so in a way which ensures that every one of our homes, old and new, is safe.

Fine words, but what next?

Our first priority must be responding to the people directly affected at Grenfell Tower. Housing associations up and down the country have offered whatever support they can.

L&Q caretakers from the other side of London dropped everything to attend the scene of the fire. And along with other housing association colleagues we offered to provide our voids, to convert our sales pipeline to buy nearby homes, and to provide food, clothes and support.

Our second priority is checking that all of our homes are safe and reassuring residents as soon as we can. As a member of the National Housing Federation board I have witnessed extraordinary efforts by all housing associations.

In L&Q’s case we manage 260 blocks over six storeys high. A handful have failed the the Building Research Establishment test.

Like others, we have a 24-hour presence on site and have offered one-to-one support and advice to our residents, working closely with the fire services.

“Where improvements are needed, we must make them. Cost cannot be a barrier.”

Third, where improvements are needed, we must make them. Cost cannot be a barrier. Where we can afford it, we need to get on with it.

But where help is necessary, it must be provided. L&Q is developing a bespoke solution for each of our towers.

And fourth, we must learn and adapt. This will take time, but for me three lessons spring to mind. At the appropriate time we need to stand back, review the standards and regulations to which we build homes and make sure they are robust enough.

We need to develop a more co-ordinated approach to events such as these, agreeing priorities, responsibilities and information flows.

And for L&Q, it is at times like this when you realise how important it is to have strong ties with residents and local authorities. We have been tested, it hasn’t been perfect, but local authorities and housing associations have shown true partnership over recent weeks. I hope that the bonds created during this time will last.

This is a turning point for all of us; 14 June changes everything. As Inside Housing says, never again.

 

David Montague, chief executive, L&Q

 

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