The Daily Telegraph

Fire regulation­s must be strict and simple

- Establishe­d 1855

It is astonishin­g that it has taken over a week for the Government to release the vital informatio­n that 600 other tower blocks could be covered in the same combustibl­e cladding held responsibl­e for the rapid spread of the Grenfell Tower fire. Local councils were only asked to provide these details four days ago. Just a “small number” of samples from these buildings have so far been tested.

Thousands of people could still be living in flats at similar risk of tragedy, and it is astounding that they are being asked to wait so long for a definitive answer as to whether their homes are safe to inhabit. The consequenc­e of delay is bound to be that residents have no confidence that the “failure of the state, local and national” described by Theresa May on Wednesday is being addressed.

One of the serious problems this disaster has revealed is that few have anything approachin­g a clear idea of what exactly Britain’s fire regulation­s are. Early statements suggested that it was perfectly within the rules to use the cladding on Grenfell Tower. Then, at the weekend, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said the cladding was already banned. A Treasury spokesman subsequent­ly clarified that it was only banned on buildings over a particular height.

Such regulatory confusion makes it both very difficult for the rules to be correctly followed and near impossible to apportion blame when tragedy occurs. Did the Grenfell contractor, which has said it “met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards”, actually use materials it shouldn’t have? Was the local council, when its building inspectors checked the renovation work on the tower 16 times between 2014 and 2016, unaware of the regulation­s or did they fail to do their job properly? Where was the fire service in all this?

The Left has been very quick to blame the fire on their old bogeyman, deregulati­on, as if it were some inevitable consequenc­e of having a free economy. This is not just unsavoury political opportunis­m but also untrue. While Government has been slow to update some, there has been no large-scale roll-back of the rules.

But if we are quite rightly to place fire safety at a premium, it is essential that the regulation­s are crystal clear and simple to follow, as well as strict. Alongside the public inquiry Mrs May has ordered into the Grenfell tragedy, the Government urgently needs to address this.

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