EVENTS
Building a safer future and Grenfell outcomes seminar Latest FPA seminar reflects on upcoming changes
FPA MANAGING director Jonathan O’Neill opened by discussing the government’s recent regulatory announcements, which he had been ‘sceptical’ about, but added ‘how wrong could I have been’, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) having ‘clearly been very busy in recent months’.
Reforms and change MHCLG’s Chandru Dissanayeke spoke on delivery of the Hackitt Review’s reforms, noting: ‘I come into work every day and repeat Grenfell in my head, because everything I do is looking to make sure it never happens again. It’s important to remind myself, my staff and the people I have contact with on a regular basis why we are here’. With regard to meeting industry individuals who ‘push their agenda’, Mr Dissanayeke said that ‘when you start to put yourself in the place of someone who either lost a loved one, home or neighbour, that brings a whole different sense of meaning and purpose’. The government had ‘recognised
that very early’, five areas of work being set up across public sectors post Grenfell, and in the building safety programme he is responsible for reform to ‘really make sure we are learning the lessons, as we start to look at this sector through a much more forensic lens’. MHCLG realised ‘immediately’ that problems were system wide, and Mr Dissanayeke then discussed the cladding test programme. He had ‘honestly thought’ Grenfell
was a ‘one off – imagine our shock when test after test failed’, with the final figure for aluminium composite material (ACM) clad high rises reaching 450 – ‘it’s not a difficult conclusion to discover that this was a systemic problem’. On the second phase of the Grenfell inquiry, he commented: ‘I can imagine, based on the first report, it will be hard hitting and truthful’.
Reflecting on the announcements, Mr Dissanayeke said the building safety programme is looking at
both legacy and the future. MHCLG would ‘need your help to reform’, which will be ‘really complex as this is not a homogenous industry’, but an ‘industry shift and change in the future feels possible and doable’ even if it would ‘take time and leadership’ – though he was ‘confident, having heard the will from industry and the government’. The question of legacy was ‘more complex – how are we going to resolve the legacy of poor workmanship, quality, standards and build, so it is not passed on to the next generation?’. Cladding remediation
programmes were ‘making progress but not as fast as we’d like’, an independent expert having been appointed to ensure ‘we and the industry are doing all we can to remove cladding’. Greater focus is required, and many elements of fire safety were already being or had been improved. The Bolton fire in November was
a ‘wake up call’, which made the government aware that legacy was ‘not one person’s response but our collective response’, and that some elements of industry were ‘looking to circumvent rules by building just below 18m’ – any expert that spoke of a vast difference between 17.95m and 18m was ‘being dishonest to themselves’. Hackitt’s focus on industry culture
showed people ‘will look to blame the rules and then look at what they
16 MARCH 2020
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can get away with, as opposed to understanding the spirit of the law and principles’. Creating a cultural shift would ‘take time, and all of us in this room and outside – we need to get people to engage and care’. MHCLG tweaks to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005 ‘put beyond doubt’ that external walls of buildings were a common area, and the government aims to ‘bring forward far reaching legislation’ to ‘create the bed to drive real change’. The new regulator would be
‘established very, very quickly’ under the guidance of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with Dame Judith Hackitt joining to make sure the regulator ‘has the real teeth to hold the industry to account and make sure change happens’. The announcements were ‘just the start of our journey’, with consultation responses painting a ‘real desire out there to see change’.
Third party certification BAFE chairman Douglas Barnett wondered how often anyone ‘actually checks when we do something or trust someone with our life’, as ‘there’s trust that there are systems and qualifications that are all very much appropriate’. For insurers, competence is
a ‘massive, massive issue’, and speaking as someone in insurance and fire, he said ‘there’s got to be an increased recognition of competence at all levels’.
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