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Government must show courage, even as it is held accountable for past failings
The tragedies at Lakanal House and Ronan Point pointed to a whole system failure, but we failed to learn the lessons. This time must be different, says Emma Maier
On the day of the Grenfell Tower fire, we asked: “How could this happen again?” Like the rest of the housing sector, we had seen the pain and devastation caused by the Lakanal House fire. We had seen government inaction and missed opportunities.
The tragedy was compounded by that failure to learn from the lessons of the past. Yet it was clear even in the aftermath that there had been a whole system failure that would prove complex and time-consuming to unpick. Our Never Again campaign sought to balance the need for immediate action to make people’s homes safer now, with the delicate job of properly understanding the causes and lessons to inform future changes.
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Our focus was urging government and landlords to learn the lessons from Lakanal House now and commit to acting as soon as possible on new learning as it emerged.
Over the past year, the extent of those un-learned lessons has become ever clearer. In fact, the missed opportunities extend much further back. Last month we marked the 50th anniversary of the Ronan Point disaster. The focus on tower block safety since Grenfell has revealed extremely worrying failures to act on similar large panel system blocks.
“The focus on tower block safety since Grenfell has revealed extremely worrying failures to act on similar large panel system blocks.”
It appears that structural improvements were not completed on some blocks, government failed to check and records are missing or incomplete. Meanwhile, the words of then-secretary of state Sajid Javid on the failure to hear Grenfell tenants’ voices are an eerie echo of the 2007 Cave Review.
This time must be different.
Our cover from 16 June last year
We have amended our Never Again campaign actions to reflect learning so far. Some of our asks are challenging. We call on government to front up to past failings and show greater leadership. We ask landlords to publish their fire risk assessments (FRAs), commit to a timetable for beginning cladding removal and act to listen better to tenants.
It is to the great credit of the Chartered Institute of Housing, the G15, the National Federation of ALMOs, the National Housing Federation and Placeshapers that they are backing these calls.
There is a long way to go. Our analysis of FRAs for 40% of the UK’s social housing towers found 71% with fire doors that were broken or would not provide 30 minutes’ resistance, while 24% breached compartmentation. More than half were dated before the Grenfell Tower fire.
In some areas slow progress has been for good reasons, and government advice, clarity and leadership has been lacking. Our campaign is focused on achieving progress as quickly as possible and looking for ways to overcome challenges and act faster. In this, we are unashamedly impatient.
“Our campaign is focused on achieving progress as quickly as possible and looking for ways to overcome challenges and act faster. In this, we are unashamedly impatient.”
Now is the time for landlords to take ownership, act decisively and, where needed, fill the leadership void left by government. Government must show courage, even as it is held accountable for past failings. Never Again.
Inside Housing will be supporting North Kensington Law Centre, which gives free legal advice to Grenfell survivors and other community organisations over the next year.
We urge readers wishing to mark the anniversary of the fire to support local organisations.
Never Again campaign
In the days following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017, Inside Housing launched the Never Again campaign to call for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
One year on, we have extended the campaign asks in the light of information that has emerged since.
Here are our updated asks:
GOVERNMENT
- Act on the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations to tower blocks of 18m and higher. Commit to producing a timetable for implementation by autumn 2018, setting out how recommendations that don’t require legislative change can be taken forward without delay
- Follow through on commitments to fully ban combustible materials on high-rise buildings
- Unequivocally ban desktop studies
- Review recommendations and advice given to ministers after the Lakanal House fire and implement necessary changes
- Publish details of all tower blocks with dangerous cladding, insulation and/or external panels and commit to a timeline for remedial works. Provide necessary guidance to landlords to ensure that removal work can begin on all affected private and social residential blocks by the end of 2018. Complete quarterly follow-up checks to ensure that remedial work is completed to the required standard. Checks should not cease until all work is completed.
- Stand by the prime minister’s commitment to fully fund the removal of dangerous cladding
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
- Explore options for requiring remedial works on affected private sector residential tower blocks
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
- Take immediate action to identify privately owned residential tower blocks so that cladding and external panels can be checked
LANDLORDS
- Publish details of the combinations of insulations and cladding materials for all high rise blocks
- Commit to ensuring that removal work begins on all blocks with dangerous materials by the end of 2018 upon receipt of guidance from government
- Publish current fire risk assessments for all high rise blocks (the Information Commissioner has required councils to publish and recommended that housing associations should do the same). Work with peers to share learning from assessments and improve and clarify the risk assessment model.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out. Ensure assessments consider the external features of blocks. Always use an appropriate, qualified expert to conduct assessments.
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in the light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
- Adopt Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommended approach for listening to and addressing tenants’ concerns, with immediate effect
CURRENT SIGNATORIES:
- Chartered Institute of Housing
- G15
- National Federation of ALMOs
- National Housing Federation
- Placeshapers