Build new homes, but make sure that they are safe homes.
That’s the message today to the Labour Party from the Fire Brigades Union ahead of Friday’s seventh anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, when 72 people were killed in a blaze in a residential block.
The FBU’s General Secretary, Matt Wrack has appealed to Labour to tackle the lack of regulation that led to the disaster, and to hold those responsible accountable.
Labour has pledged to build 1.5million homes in its first term.
Wrack said: “The Grenfell Tower fire was a crime committed by politicians and corporations on residents they were supposed to protect.
‘Crime of deregulation’: FBU leader Matt Wrack
“Those responsible must be held accountable. But fundamentally, Grenfell was caused by a lack of regulation and oversight by ministers.”
One of the housing ministers in the time leading up to the Grenfell Tower fire was Gavin Barwell, who from 2010 to 2017 was the Conservative MP for Croydon Central. Barwell was among several Tory ministers who failed to respond to warnings from parliamentary colleagues of the serious dangers from flammable external cladding being retro-fitted to high-rise council housing stock.
Wrack said: “The Tories have failed to implement adequate safety measures and continue to leave many thousands of high-rise residents at risk.
“The next Labour Government must end the crime of deregulation, with proper standards and oversight of building materials, design and evacuation plans. The fire service must be given the resources it needs for a programme of enforcement and inspection.
“Promises to build homes are welcome – but they must be safe.”
Read more: Officials knew dangers of cladding 15 years before Grenfell
Read more: Grenfell inquiry set to quiz Barwell over ignored warnings
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Is Gavin Barwell still on “leave of absence” from the House of Lords ?
That’s The Rt Hon. the Lord Barwell to you. He last voted in the House of Sleaze on 11 January 2022, being “not content” with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
Of course.
Matt Wrack is entirely correct in everything he says in respect of the Tories (Eric Pickles has a lot to answer for here, perhaps rather more than Barwell) yet glosses the historic Labour, Lib Dem and and LFB role in this.
It’s arguable that the Grenfell fire was lit on July 3rd 2009 when Lakanal House in Camberwell burned, with the loss of six lives.
As at Grenfell, a fault in an electrical appliance started the fire and, again, the cladding spread it. Again, it had been unsafely refurbished both in terms of materials and workmanship.
Fire safety in the block was the responsibility of Southwark LBC (then NOC with 44% of councillors being Labour and 44% Lib Dem. The Tories constituted 9%) and had been since 2006.
In the three years between becoming responsible for Lakanal and the fire, Southwark failed to carry out any fire safety inspections on the building, nor any other blocks for that matter.
Despite Lakanal having a) already been identified as a fire risk and b) recommended for demolition. Any meaningful inspection in those three years would have revealed some really serious problems with the building.
Once Lakanal was alight, the LFB, as it did at Grenfell, operated a ‘stay put’ policy of advice to residents calling 999; and it was established later – as it has been for Grenfell – that that was wrong and a prompt evacuation would have saved lives, likely all of them.
One poor woman was being counselled to stay where she was for 40 minutes by the fire brigade before she died.
So we have a fatal fire in an unsafe tower block run by a Lab-Lib council, under a Labour government, while the LFB pursued a deadly ‘stay put’ strategy.
And while the Labour government had only 11 months to run, it still had 11 months to run and did nothing beyond the usual bureaucratic can-kicking until losing office in May 2010.
Following the inquest in 2013 (note: it took five more years, five years for God’s sake, for the inquest to conclude. Grenfell is six years and counting); government, councils and the LFB were all in receipt of recommendations in respect of tower block fire safety.
Fast forward four years to Grenfell – just a month shy of eight years since Lakanal – and we have a Conservative Government that has can-kicked regulations on building safety; a Conservative LBC that is responsible for a dangerous refurbishment; and a fire brigade that still tells people to stay in their burning flats and subsequently admits that its officers had not received training on tower block evacuations.
It beggars belief.
Matt Wrack is absolutely correct that Grenfell was a crime committed by corporations – some of which I am convinced will be looking at corporate manslaughter charges, if not worse, before too long – and by politicians.
But such fires have long fuses and while the Conservative Government has been utterly remiss in this (as in so many areas); theirs is not the only dead hand in the story.
So Jack: are we ever going to confirm the high-rise blocks granted planning permission in Croydon since 2017 which lack some of the essential safety features recommended to avoid such a disaster?
All right, all right: I get the message.
Everyone was to blame for Grenfell, not just politicians. The Residents Association and TMO, professional trade associations, architects, Building Standards bods … the list goes on. And on. If you followed the inquiry, you’d see evidence of Broken Britain. Nothing worked. Everyone lied. No one showed any shame.
So you’re victim-blaming now?
Classy
No victims in my appreviated list, just a load of arse-coverers. The victims were the block’s residents. As you well know.
You wrote “Everyone”, and you included “Residents Association”. Whose members included… residents.
Disgusting victim-blaming.