FOCUS
Truth to power In his address to members of both government houses, Jonathan O’Neill provided the perspective of UK insurers on the review of building regulations
I
AM scheduled to speak to you on fi re safety building codes and regulations – the UK insurers’ perspective. But let’s begin with what essentially has brought us all here today. Dame Judith Hackitt kicks off her interim report by reminding us of the tragic and serious events that led to the fi re in the early hours of 14 June last year; quite correctly pronouncing that this should never happen again. I am sure that everyone in this room can recall their emotions that morning.
Grenfell Tower
I was due on a very early morning flight to Lisbon. I think my alarm woke me at about 2.00am; sadly for me, I am alerted to larger fi res, and so as I went to silence my alarm I was aware of the incident in West London. As I left the house and got into the car the seriousness of the incident was becoming clearer. I arrived at Heathrow in two minds about whether I should catch the fl ight or remain in London. From the top of the car park at Heathrow, I could see the smoke, and assumed at that stage that the fi re and rescue service had it
36 APRIL 2018
www.frmjournal.com
under control. It was clearly serious, but not for one moment did I think the incident would have resulted in the largest loss of life in fi re in the UK since the Second World War – and this happened on our watch! Sadly before I left London that morning, in
fact before I actually left Evesham 120 miles north west of here, I was pretty sure that the fi re I could see reported in those grainy pictures on Twitter and on the internet from the BBC involved the combustible cladding. I also knew that we had been aware of this risk for some considerable time: I had actually made a presentation to BRAC some 18 months earlier questioning the appropriateness of current building regulations (BRs) and pleading for a review. That presentation was the result of a campaign that the FPA and insurers had been running for the previous six months or so. In common with many in the fi re sector, we had become frustrated that our regulations had not been properly reviewed in respect of fi re for the best part of ten years. We were concerned that during that period, changes in the regulations for thermal insulation, the drive for sustainability
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
