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Adonis: don't wait for inquiry to implement change
Important decisions on fire safety should not be delayed until after the public inquiry, which “could take 10 years”, an influential Labour peer chair of the National Infrastructure Commission has said.
Lord Andrew Adonis made the remarks in his address to the Housing 2017 conference in Manchester earlier today.
“What tends to happen with these public inquiries,” he warned, “is everybody says that they should leave taking any serious action until the public inquiry’s been reported and that they can’t deal with all these difficult questions until after the inquiry.
“It’s very important that we don’t delay all action and all improvements and any bold attempt to address this serious problem of the shortage of social housing in central London, that we don’t park all of that until this inquiry has reported.”
Lord Adonis, who in his speech emphasised the importance of a joined-up approach between infrastructure and housing, also insisted that setting up an inquiry was not the same as taking real action.
“There had to be a public inquiry on this occasion because the loss of life was so great and the tragedy so appalling,” the life peer conceded. “But it’s very convenient for governments to set up public inquiries because they appear to be doing something.
“In fact – let’s be clear – all that they’re doing is appointing a public inquiry. Nothing else has changed.”
Retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick will lead the public inquiry. Lord Adonis said that he hoped Sir Martin has “a lot of resilience and staying power because he may well need it”.
Inside Housing’s Never Again campaign calls on government to update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry.