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Grenfell inquiry should investigate ‘systemic failures’ in regulation, MPs say
The Grenfell Tower fire inquiry should investigate “systemic failures in the whole regulatory process”, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Fire Safety and Rescue has said.
In its submission to the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry, the APPG said it should look at why “clear and consistent recommendations and warnings that the system was in danger of being compromised” following the Lakanal House fire in 2009 when six people died were not acted upon by government ministers.
The APPG has repeatedly called for the building regulations guidance relating to fire safety to be reviewed and called on the inquiry to look at why these calls have been ignored over the past 11 years.
Specifically, the inquiry should look at whether the decision to drop the previous requirement under the London Building Act for the external envelope of a building to have one-hour fire resistance was a “significant factor” in the Lakanal House and Grenfell Tower fires, the APPG said.
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The APPG said the use of cladding material with “limited combustibility” on Grenfell Tower would not have been allowed under the previous legislation – Section 20 of the London Building Act.
The inquiry should also look at the system of assessing fire risks though self-assessment and whether fire services would be better placed to carry out this work.
The APPG will make correspondence with government ministers available to the inquiry which shows its attempts over a number of years “to seek necessary change, without success”.
The submission added: “In particular, the inquiry should closely examine the departmental advice given to ministers justifying the status quo, against strong professional opinion from the fire sector and from coroners, following other relevant fire tragedies.”
The inquiry should look at the use of sprinkler systems in tower blocks. The submission stated: “The All-Party Group acknowledges the fact that people do not die in sprinklered buildings. A single death in a building fitted with a working sprinkler system, designed to the appropriate standard for the risk, is an extremely rare event anywhere in the world. A multiple fire death is almost unheard of.
“Immediate recommendations for retrofitting sprinklers to tower blocks, supported by funding where required, would have wide cross-party political support and is the most positive solution when other measures fail.”
Inside Housing’s Never Again campaign calls on government to fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so).
