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MPs to continue to probe Hackitt Review
The Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee of MPs will hold further evidence sessions about the implications of the Hackitt Review.
The group of cross-party MPs gave Dame Judith Hackitt a grilling last week following the publication of the final report in her review of building regulations and fire safety, commissioned by the government after the Grenfell Tower fire last June.
It said the new sessions will focus “on the immediate and longer-term changes needed to improve the safety of residential tower blocks, and how improvements can be applied more widely in the construction industry”.
Construction industry leaders, fire safety experts and government figures will appear at the sessions, to be held before the summer parliamentary recess.
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The committee will examine the “immediate, specific changes” needed to building regulations to improve the safety of tower blocks.
And it will consider how the “longer-term systemic and cultural changes” recommended by Dame Judith can be implemented.
Clive Betts, chair of the HCLG Committee, said: “While we agree with the review that there needs to be a shift in culture in the building industry, it is vital that the government moves quickly to implement immediate changes to improve the safety of tower blocks.
“We want to find out what needs to be done now, such as the banning of combustible cladding, as well as ways of changing the long-term approach of the industry.
“By taking evidence before the summer we hope the government will consider our findings as part of the commitments made by the secretary of state last week to consult on banning cladding and the implementation of wider reform of the regulatory system.”
Dame Judith stopped short of recommending a ban on the use of combustible materials on high rises.
However, housing secretary James Brokenshire later announced that government would consult on a ban.
The HCLG Committee has written to Mr Brokenshire calling for an immediate ban.
