The Week in Housing: six years on from Grenfell
Good afternoon.
This week marked the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, and I spent most of Wednesday in west London at a memorial service and then a silent walk, as thousands turned out to line the streets of North Kensington and support the call from bereaved and survivors for justice.
For the housing sector, the big question at this time of year is: has enough changed?
It would be wrong to say nothing has been done.
The most recent government figures show that 100% of the 160 high-rise towers in the social housing sector with the same aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding as Grenfell Tower have begun remediation, with 159 having reached the stage where the panels have been taken off.
Of course, one might reasonably say that six years is too long to have taken to achieve this most fundamental step – especially given that the government’s original deadline was June 2020 and there are still 23 privately owned blocks where work has not begun.
But getting it done has involved thousands of diligent professionals doing a complex, thankless job in a difficult climate and given what we now know about the devastatingly dangerous nature of this material, it is a relief that we can (almost) say there are no more social housing high rises where ACM is present.
There are also (belated) new rules on fire doors, which require annual checks in all buildings taller than 11 metres. This is less frequent than the Grenfell Tower Inquiry originally recommended, but should still mean serious progress in addressing the major risk of missing and broken self-closing devices finally begins to diminish.
Again, given what we now know about the major contribution this specific issue made to the events at Grenfell Tower, this is positive.
The new Building Safety Regulator and the Regulator of Social Housing’s consumer arm are also gearing up in earnest after many years of stasis. Both, if they deliver, should help build a safer sector.
However, there is also much – far too much – to say about what has not changed.
Despite the progress in getting ACM off tall buildings, the position with medium and low rises remains a mess – with no reliable data, no oversight and no major funding.
Progress on materials other than ACM, which can be desperately dangerous in a fire, is also partial at best.
Despite new protections, many residents of these buildings continue to suffer the enormous mental and financial burden that is the reward for the misfortune of living in a flat in a building with safety issues.
There are still far too many stories about social landlords not keeping up with fire risk assessments and the actions they demand. This year held a sobering reminder of the consequences of leaving defects for too long.
A rally following the Grenfell march on Wednesday was addressed by housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa. His work exposing disrepair in social housing is a reminder of just how hard it can be for residents to get action taken about issues with their homes. Barely a week goes by without another such story from the Housing Ombudsman.
Our research this week shows disappointing progress in fitting sprinklers and fire alarms in high rises across England (although there is a better picture in Wales, where funding has been made available).
In some ways, this speaks to a very fundamental failure to change in this country: before Grenfell, we relied wholly on ‘compartmentation’ to keep residents safe if a fire broke out.
Since Grenfell, we have focused on fixing issues with compartmentation, such as broken fire doors and dangerous cladding, but have not sufficiently challenged the premise that this one layer of protection alone may not always be enough.
Sprinklers put out 99% of fires and alarms are a backstop to get people out if things start going wrong.
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A fire in Croydon last week – in a low-rise building that would unlikely be a priority for remedial action – was yet another reminder of how things can and will go wrong again.
Fixing the faults is important, but so is having other measures which keep people safe and alive if the unexpected happens.
We are not there yet. And six years on from Grenfell, for all the genuine effort in some areas, is far too long to still be saying that.
Elsewhere, but not unrelated, housing association bosses appeared before MPs this week to talk about the financial stability of the sector. This comes, of course, at a key moment when the sector’s finances are under pressure as they have never been before.
There was some serious disquiet among MPs about the suggestion of raising some rents more quickly in future years to cover the shortfalls.
But what was missing from these concerns was acknowledgement of the real choices – which are rents rising, work not being done, or more money coming in from elsewhere.
It is to be hoped that the committee can make some reasoned suggestions that may form a base for better policy in the years to come.
Have a great weekend.
Peter Apps, deputy editor, Inside Housing
Say hello: peter.apps@insidehousing.co.uk
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