Safety at risk as cuts bite, MSPs warned

SCOTLAND must invest more in fire safety and building standards officers in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, MSPs were warned yesterday.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said cuts in firefighters across the country should be addressed urgently – their number has fallen by almost a quarter since 2013/14.

Meanwhile, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Scotland told MSPs that local authority building standards departments were suffering from a ‘huge lack of investment’.

The Local Government Committee has extended its inquiry into building standthe ards to cover fire safety since the London tower block blaze.

The FBU’s Denise Christie said the number of uniformed fire safety officers in Scotland is down by 24 per cent since 2013/14 – from 89 to 68 – and that this comes alongside wider job losses within the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

She said: ‘We’ve had year-on-year cuts to our organisation and we are finding it very, very difficult to cope.

‘We were promised that the reorganisation from the eight former brigades into one SFRS would not impact on the front line, but it absolutely is.

‘Now we are seeing cuts to our fire safety inspection officers right across the country, and we’re hearing from our members that they are finding it very difficult to complete fire safety inspections in the amount of time they have.

‘It’s really disappointing and it’s really concerning to hear.’

Asked if increased investment in fire safety officers was needed urgently, Miss Christie said: ‘Absolutely, especially on the back of the Grenfell Tower fire.

‘The fire service isn’t just about responding to incidents, it’s about protection and preventing incidents as well.’

The RICS’s Kenny McKenzie told MSPs: ‘There is a huge lack of investment in local authority building standards.

‘One of the best things any government could do would be to give building control... the building standards verification process some enforcement teeth, we have no enforcement teeth at all. It is very poor.’

The committee also heard recommendations for stricter rules for public landlords and the retro-fitting of sprinkler systems in older tower blocks.