Building bosses will face jail over lethal materials
BOSSES of companies which make dangerous products used to build homes face jail in moves to stop a repeat of the Grenfell fire to be announced today.
A tough new body is being set up by the Government to ‘police’ the industry with the power to prosecute those who try to cheat housing safety laws.
The Construction Products Regulator (CPR) will employ a squad of ‘safety enforcers’ tasked with tracking down dangerous materials and putting rogue bosses who profit from them in the dock.
It follows public outrage at evidence heard by the inquiry into the Grenfell tower block fire which killed 72 people in Kensington, west London, in 2017. It has heard how firms that made cladding and used in the flats, said insulation blamed for fuelling the customers worried about the fire showed scant regard for safety safety of its product could ‘go **** – and were able to rig safety tests. themselves’. The executive also
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said people asking questions were believes the Grenfell building mistaking him for ‘someone who safety test scandal is ‘Britain’s version gives a damn’. of the VW emissions affair’. A former Kingspan employee
In 2015 German car giant said he became ‘embroiled in a Volkswagen was accused of fitting deliberate and calculated deceit devices on new cars to cheat clean to fabricate’ test results. air laws. It was claimed they could An ex-employee of French firm detect when vehicles were being Arconic, which supplied cladding tested, allowing the engine to falsify used at Grenfell, sent an email noxious fumes blamed for before the disaster saying mateter thousands of deaths.
It has cost VW £26billion in fines and led to criminal charges against company bosses.
Mr Jenrick hopes the new measures will stop the construction industry making dangerous products and avoiding safety checks.
They will all have to pass a strict test enforced by the new regulator – and those who try to avoid it will be punished.
Mr Jenrick will also announce an investigation into how products used at Grenfell got round safety checks. The inquiry was told that a boss of Kingspan, which made rial used by the company was ‘unsuitable for use on building facades’. The CPR will have the power to ban the sale of any construction material it considers unsafe and bring criminal charges against bosses who defy the rules. All building products will have to be approved by the CPR.
A Government source said: ‘The dishonest methods used to get round safety checks in the construction industry must stop. Flouting these regulations will be treated as a serious criminal matinsulation with appropriate punishments. The Grenfell inquiry has revealed some manufacturers have put lives at risk by gaming the system, putting falsely advertised products on the market and refusing to take responsibility when caught in the act. We are putting an end to this.’
The CPR will take over product safety tests from the independent Building Research Establishment (BRE), which has been lambasted by lawyers for bereaved Grenfell families and survivors. They told the inquiry the disaster was the result of ‘an uncaring and underregulated building industry’.
The lawyers claimed that the BRE was ‘manipulated’ by ‘ruthless and criminal manufacturers’, adding: ‘The testing and certification bodies provided no such protection but reinforced the dangerous and dishonest culture within the industry.
‘They were far too close to those whom they were supposed to be overseeing and far too willing to accept their misleading claims.’