Morning Briefing: firefighter defends colleagues from Grenfell criticism

News31.05.189.00 AM by Sophie Barnes

A firefighter defends colleagues against Grenfell criticism, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive starts consultation on demolishing tower blocks and an army thinktank criticises government’s housing strategy for service families

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Morning Briefing: Firefighter defends colleagues from Grenfell criticism #ukhousing

A firefighter who rescued nine people from Grenfell Tower has said that criticism of his colleagues is unfair as they “risked their own lives to save others”, reports The Telegraph.

Survivors have said that the brigade’s ‘stay put’ advice to residents, which remained for almost two hours after the first emergency call despite flames engulfing the building, contributed to the loss of 72 lives as a result of the fire.

At the final day of the Grenfell Inquiry commemorative hearings yesterday, the daughter of 65-year-old Sakina Afrasiabi criticised the council for housing her partially blind mother on the 18^th floor. The Huffington Post reported that Afrasiabi’s daughter, Nazanin Aghlani, told the hearing she partly blames the council’s rehousing team for her mother’s death.

Here’s our story from yesterday’s hearing.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive will begin consulting on pulling down its 33 tower blocks, Belfast Live reports.

The rent-to-own sector faces a cap on prices similar to limits on the cost of payday loans, but the Financial Conduct Authority will not impose an immediate similar restriction on overdrafts, the BBC reports.

Workers at Tower Hamlets Community Housing are planning a two week strike over pay, the East London Advertiser reports.

The housing association’s Unison members oppose a new “market based” pay system, introduced in April, which they say “breaks promises” made to them.

The Yorkshire Post reports that the Ministry of Defence has fallen “woefully short” with its plan to meet the housing needs of troops, a new report has claimed. The Royal United Services Institute has told the government it runs the risk of driving people away from the Armed Forces unless a “coherent and detailed” housing strategy is developed.
Demand at the ‘more affordable’ end of London’s housing market has helped housebuilder Telford Homes deliver a record revenue of £316.2m, up from £291.9m last year, the Daily Mail reports.

Profits rose by 35% to £46m, with the group claiming interest from build-to-rent investors, from both the UK and overseas, remained strong.

Manchester Council plans to follow in the footsteps of London councils and publish viability assessments to put pressure on developers over how much affordable housing they deliver, the Manchester Evening News reports.

London mayor Sadiq Khan called for viability assessments to be made public as part of his housing and planning guidance.

Edinburgh risks repeating the housing mistakes that have made central London inaccessible to many people.

Shelter Scotland told The Guardian that the Scottish capital was being harmed by long-term underinvestment in affordable housing, an acute shortage of suitable temporary accommodation for homeless people, and the growth of short-term lets such as Airbnb.

On social media

Our story today on less than half of Right to Buy receipts being spent on new housing has sparked some discussion on Twitter:

Treasury hives off £920m of Right to Buy receipts, leaving less than half for replacement housing #ukhousing t.co/aTxp91Jpnr
— Gemma Duggan (@HousingGemma)
Treasury hives off £920m of Right to Buy receipts, leaving less than half for replacement housing #ukhousing https://t.co/aTxp91Jpnr
— Gemma Duggan (@HousingGemma) May 31, 2018

And G15 chair Paul Hackett says the story on the shortage of Ministry of Defence housing makes the decision to sell off homes to Annington Homes in the 1990s look misguided. Here’s a story we wrote last year on the attempt to find investors to buy back those homes

Another symptom of the housing crisis: MoD struggling to provide adequate housing for service personnel. Could have detrimental impact on retention says RUSI. Decision to sell MoD homes to Annington in the 1990s now looks misguided. #ukhousing t.co/M3ZENUpPPw
— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10)
Another symptom of the housing crisis: MoD struggling to provide adequate housing for service personnel. Could have detrimental impact on retention says RUSI. Decision to sell MoD homes to Annington in the 1990s now looks misguided. #ukhousing https://t.co/M3ZENUpPPw
— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10) May 31, 2018

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