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Insurers’ warnings on combustible cladding ‘ignored by government’
Calls for sprinklers and warnings about the use of combustible cladding on tower blocks have been ignored by successive governments over the years, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said.
Insurers' warnings over combustible cladding and sprinklers ignored by government over the years #ukhousingSpeaking to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee yesterday Huw Evans, director general of the ABI, said there is a “very lax” approach to sprinklers in England, even in comparison to other countries in the UK, “never mind the rest of Europe”. “It’s much, much more light touch than in other comparable countries,” he added.
He said that if there is no regulation in place to force building owners to put sprinklers in place than they will not be installed, and cited an example of a Sony factory in Tottenham where the owners received an £80m insurance pay out after the building burnt down following the London riots. The replacement factory was quickly rebuilt but still did not have sprinklers installed because this was not required by law.
Mr Evans said the insurance industry had been warning about combustible cladding prior to Grenfell following fires on high rises in: Dubai, Australia, France and the United States.
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The ABI flagged concerns about combustible materials on high-rise buildings in its response to the government’s housing white paper in May 2017, just one month before the Grenfell fire, Mr Evans said. It also warned in 2016 about building control being a “target for building de-regulation and the need for a fundamental overhaul of the building control system to put safety more centrally in that regime.”
He added: “It’s fair to say that this has not been viewed as a public policy priority so it’s been very hard to get much traction with these issues with successive governments and it’s only now that we’ve got the degree of focus that sadly a terrible tragedy can often bring.”
The Local Government Association (LGA) has also tried to warn governments over the years about the dangers of combustible cladding.
Mark Norris, principal policy advisor at the LGA, said: “We’ve raised these issues, there’s been some awareness of these issues and combustibility but it’s not been addressed by governments of a variety of natures over the last 20-30 years probably and that’s why we need the priority now to move to a position where we do categorically ban the use of combustible material on the outside of high-rise buildings.”
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