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Fire sector professionals were asked for views on cost cutting when the government reviewed building regulations in 2010, according to letters seen by Inside Housing.
Officials wrote to construction and fire sector professionals in 2010 when the coalition government was consulting on changes to building regulations.
Inside Housing has today published ‘The Paper Trail’, a lengthy exploration of the failures in regulations in the build-up to the Grenfell Tower disaster.
A letter, sent by the then Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), says responses to the building regulations review will feed into “further discussions” alongside responses to the government’s Cutting Red Tape Review, which aimed to “reduce pointless regulation and unnecessary bureaucracy”.
The letter made several references to cutting costs in making changes to building regulations.
It states: “Ministers have indicated that they would be particularly interested in views and suggestions about compliance with the building regulations.
“This is in response to concerns that lack of compliance undermines what the regulations seek to achieve. We are keen to ensure that savings are really delivered and that our achievements are real and not theoretical.”
Click here to read The Paper Trail - our investigation into building regulations
The letter adds: “Our work needs to be underpinned by robust evidence so that we can make the right choices and understand clearly the costs and benefits.”
In 2010 the Passive Fire Protection Forum recommended to DCLG that third-party certificates for fire protection products and installers should be made mandatory because it had concerns about the fire safety expertise of these workers.
But in response, a DCLG civil servant said any major change in regulation had to go through the Cabinet Office, which would carry out a cost benefit analysis.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Nothing is more important than keeping people safe.
“That’s why following the Grenfell Tower tragedy we asked Dame Judith Hackitt to undertake an independent review of building regulations and fire safety.
“The letter sent by the department in 2010 made clear that building regulations need to be managed and maintained carefully.”
Photo: Tom Pilston/Eyevine
Dame Judith Hackitt’s (above) interim report on building safety, released in December 2017, was scathing about some of the industry’s practices.
Although the full report is not due to be published until later this year, the former Health and Safety Executive chair has already highlighted a culture of cost-cutting and is likely to call for a radical overhaul of current regulations in an interim report.
Dame Hackitt’s key recommendations and conclusions include:
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.