Tory ministers failed to act on warnings after a blaze in 2013
THERESA May’s Chief of Staff was one of several Tory ministers who “sat on” a report which warned tower blocks presented a fire risk.
Gavin Barwell, a former Housing Minister, failed to produce a review of fire regulations after a 2013 coroner’s report on the deaths of six people in another tower block blaze at Lakanal House in London.
The coroner found panels outside the building failed to give enough fire resistance, and said developers refurbishing high-rise blocks should fit sprinkler systems.
Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick, who chairs a Parliamentary fire safety group, said: “You have to ask why they’ve sat on it for four years.”
The government insists work is “ongoing” on the review and that ministers did write to developers in 2013 asking them to consider retro-fitting fire sprinklers.
But calls from the Parliamentary group for action to fit 4,000 tower blocks with sprinklers were dismissed out of hand.
Ronnie King, the group’s honorary secretary, told LBC Radio: “I would not have expected fire to spread like that if there had been automatic sprinklers.”
Home Office Minister Brandon Lewis dismissed calls for sprinklers in 2014, saying more “regulation” could stifle housing development.
As Communities Secretary in 2013, Tory Eric Pickles rejected the coroner’s call for landlords to give fire fighters more detail on premises as “disproportionate”.
Last night Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “There were very clear lessons to be learned.”