It beggars belief that Hackitt Review gives green light to combustible materials on high-rise blocks - Healey

John Healey MP, Labour's Shadow Housing Secretary, responding to the Hackitt Review of Building regulations and Fire Safety, said:

“It beggars belief that the Government’s building safety review gives the green light to combustible materials on high-rise blocks.

“Whilst some steps are welcome, this is a missed opportunity to set new safety standards that ensure a disaster like the Grenfell Tower fire can never happen again.

"Ministers cannot simply accept this report. The recommendations are too weak to overhaul the current system or give the public full confidence that their homes are safe.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

• ·         More than eleven months on from the Grenfell Tower fire, two-thirds of survivors are still stuck in hotels or temporary accommodation, thousands of residents still live in blocks with dangerous cladding, and there is still confusion about what building materials are safe to use, and whether this will change.

• ·         While Labour welcomes some parts of this Review, including a clearer responsibility for those who have a duty to keep buildings safe and fresh mechanisms for residents to raise concerns, it is a missed opportunity for the fundamental overhaul needed, including in the following areas.

Combustible cladding

• ·         The Review permits the current practice of allowing some combustible cladding on high rise buildings to continue, commenting only that under the proposed new system, low-risk materials of non or limited combustibility would only “be likely to receive approval” (p. 93).

• ·         Bodies from the Conservative-led Local Government Association, to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, to the Royal Institute of British Architects have backed Labour’s view that there is no place for combustible cladding on high-rise blocks.

Desktop studies

• ·         The Review endorses the option of the building industry using paper exercises to avoid proper testing, making clear that the Review’s proposal, which is being taken forward by Government, “does not ban assessments in lieu of tests”  (p. 93).

• ·         Many organisations, including the Conservative-led Local Government Association, and Conservative MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee have recommended a ban on desktop studies.

Sprinklers and keeping existing residents safe

• ·         The terms of reference for the Hackitt Review said it should “provide further assurance to residents that the complete system is working to ensure the buildings they live in are safe and remain so.” 

• ·         Fire chiefs have been clear this means retrofitting sprinklers into blocks, but the Review makes no recommendation to do this. It also has nothing to say on the difficult situation faced by many residents in private tower blocks with dangerous cladding.

• ·         Labour has proposed a £1bn Fire Safety Fund to retrofit sprinklers in high-rise social housing buildings, and tough new sanctions on private block owners who don’t make their buildings safe, including a new back stop power for councils to take over dangerous private blocks.