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The director of the Fire Protection Association (FPA) has hit out at a lack of action from government over building guidance which permits the use of combustible materials on high rises.
Speaking at an international forum on fire safety building regulations, Jonathan O’Neill, managing director of the FPA, said it was “extraordinary” that seven months after the Grenfell Tower fire “nothing has happened”.
He said: “Immediately post-Grenfell we were asked for comments in the building regulations review.
“The UK’s national fire safety organisations, the Association of British Insurers and the Royal Institute of British Architects were at one – combustible materials in the building process may be an issue, and nothing has happened.
“We are now seven months [on] from this tragedy and still we haven’t had any action on that. I find it quite extraordinary.”
Mr O’Neill, who was recently awarded an OBE for his services to fire safety, also said he had “pleaded” with the government’s Building Regulations Advisory Committee to review the regulations 18 months before the Grenfell Tower fire because there was a concern that there had been a “massive rise” in the use of combustible materials being “routinely used” but no review took place.
He added: “I must admit I left that meeting believing that a long overdue review of building regulations was imminent. Of course, events proved my assertions to be wildly optimistic, nothing happened and then we had Grenfell.”
The FPA drew up its own version of Approved Document B – the fire safety part of the building regulations guidance – because the organisation was “frustrated by the continual refusal of successive governments to recognise the importance of a resilient as well as a sustainable built environment”, Mr O’Neill said.
There is still “confusion” in the building sector over whether cladding systems are legally compliant and, if not, what they should be replaced with, Mr O’Neill said.
The FPA was set up by the insurance industry to provide advice on fire safety.
Approved Document B requires external walls to be Class 0 rated, which can be achieved by a material resisting the spread of flame across its surface. The industry has understood this to be the requirement for external cladding.
But since the fire, the government has claimed that the interior of cladding should be regarded as “filler” and therefore as insulation – meaning it would be required to meet the tougher threshold of limited combustibility in the guidance.
Experts have disputed this interpretation and warned that it is slowing the removal of dangerous cladding, by confusing building owners and contractors about who is liable to pay for the removal.
Gareth Steele, senior fire engineer at the London Fire Brigade, told the event the fire safety sector had become “a little bit complacent” prior to the Grenfell Tower fire. He said the Lakanal House fire in 2009, in which six people died, should have forced changes to be made.
He said: “There were lessons that perhaps we could and should have learnt prior to the tragedy of 14 June last year. Lakanal House, for example, was very significant in UK fire history, yet very little changed after that event.”
Inside Housing is calling 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.
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.