Building Safety Report

We recently passed 1,000 days since the Grenfell Tower tragedy. 72 lives were lost in what became our worst ever residential fire in peacetime. Since then, what have we been doing to improve Building Safety? If we go back to 3 days after the fire, Prime Minister Theresa May stated: 

“The fire at Grenfell Tower was an unimaginable tragedy for the community, and for our country. My Government will do whatever it takes to help those affected, get justice and keep our people safe.”

Theresa May – PM

Following the launch of the Building a Safer Future report, Dame Judith Hackitt issued this advice to the industry: 

“I said in my review, we did not need to wait for the regulation before people started to change their behaviours. That is what we have been trying to push for and now we have that clear message from government that the regulations are going to be implemented in full, there is a need for us to underline that. There really is no reason to wait for the regulation”

So, with senses heightened and attuned to Building Safety, we decided to carry out a survey. We looked at how close English housing associations and local authority landlords are to the proposed new regulations. Specifically, we assessed annual reviews of Fire Risk Assessments and digital sharing of these documents with residents.

The results are available to download in this Building Safety Report, which makes for sobering reading. It is clear we still have a long way to go before Theresa May’s promise of a safer future for residents becomes reality.