Safety failings ‘unforgivable’

Experts blast council housing fire safety failings

Housing bosses’ failure to fix urgent fire safety issues was “unforgivable” in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy, according to a damning report.

The entire East Kent Housing (EKH) board has now been sacked following the investigation by consultants Pennington Choices.

Its report highlights a focus on cost-cutting rather than resolving 4,800 fire safety problems across the Canterbury, Folkestone and Hythe, Thanet and Dover districts. It reads: “Much of the remedial work represents a direct threat to the health and safety of residents, yet it has taken circa 12 months to get a contractor appointed and in place [...] There is undoubted operational fault on the part of EKH and the councils in terms of the delay in getting this contract going. “However, it is a leadership role to ensure that time and mission critical things ‘happen’.

“Residents could quite reasonably see this failure in leadership as unforgivable considering the seriousness of the safety issues in question and the wider context of the Grenfell tragedy.” Thirteen of the fire risks assessments had been rated as

“intolerable” - which means the building should not be occupied. Pennington Choices was commissioned by the councils to examine the events which led to the authorities failing to meet statutory health and safety requirements for gas, water, electrical, fire and lifts.

The independent expert warns that the councils are at risk of prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive.

During a site visit in October, it found 9,432 council-owned domestic properties without an asbestos management survey, while 876 communal blocks had not been assessed for legionella risks in the water supply.

Almost 8,000 properties were without electrical safety reports - and EKH confirmed only 30% of homes had been inspected since it was created in 2011.

But the consultants’ greatest concerns were over fire safety.

“Some of the highest risk actions date back to 2018, representing a significant risk to residents and a fundamental failure in the management system to undertake these remedial actions,” the report says.

It later adds: “Fire safety remains the most significant immediate risk to the residents and consequentially in terms of corporate risk to the councils.”

The bombshell report has led to the EKH bosses being dismissed.

The organisation’s board is now made up of Canterbury’s chief executive Colin Carmichael, Dover’s Nadeem Aziz, Thanet’s Madeline Homer and Folkestone and Hythe’s head of paid service Dr Susan Priest.

An emergency meeting of Canterbury City Council’s policy and resources committee has been called for tomorrow (Friday). Councillors are being urged to give Mr Carmichael authority to spend over and above the housing revenue account budget, if needed, to ensure health and safety requirements are urgently met. n What do you think? Email kentishgazette@thekmgroup. co.uk

The Grenfell Tower blaze in 2017, which killed 72 people