Tories failed to act after 2013 deaths
THERESA May’s Chief of Staff was one of several Tory ministers who “sat on” a report that 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. He also 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 insist work is “ongoing” on the review and say ministers wrote to developers in 2013 asking them to consider retro-fitting sprinklers.
But calls from the Parliamentary group for action to fit 4000 high-rises with sprinklers were dismissed out of hand.
Ronnie King, the group’s honorary secretary, said: “I would not have expected fire to spread like that if there had been automatic sprinklers.”
Home Office Minister Brandon Lewis refused calls for sprinklers in 2014, saying more “regulation” could stifle housing development.
In 2013, the then Tory Communities Secretary Eric Pickles rejected the coroner’s call for landlords to give firefighters more detail on premises as “disproportionate”.
Last night, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “There were very clear lessons to be learned.”