Last night our CEO Matt Hodges-Long joined Sarah-Jane Mee on Sky News for their 1 hour Grenfell Tower special. (Matt’s segment is from 31:25-40:05 on the Sky player.)

Matt has worked closely with Sky News on a number of Building Safety Crisis related stories and is firmly committed to keeping building safety in the spotlight until such time as we have an effective regulatory system in place.

Matt commented “I just want to state again, how much respect and admiration I have for the Grenfell community. I had the opportunity to chat at length last night with Emma Louise O’Connor and learn more about her story and her fight for justice. She is amazing!”

Some of the specific points Matt discussed in the interview, included:

1. The ‘ploddy ploddy government response’ to Grenfell and the Building Safety Crisis that followed

2. Government numbers of impacted buildings under reported due to under 11m / 5 storeys excluded

3. Government should have pre-empted the Grenfell inquiry recommendations and got on with forward planning

4. The new(ish) Building Safety Regulator is ‘struggling to operationalise’

5. Confirmed support for private enterprise in the supply chain subject to effective regulation

6. Enforcement – ‘we are good at creating rules but we’re poor at enforcing them’ leading to a ‘culture of contempt’

7. Transparency of building safety information required, especially in relation to residents – as per the regulations that already exist

8. Enforcement authorities need to be properly funded

As with all television interviews there is never enough time available to raise every issue, so we asked Matt what one topic he would like to have discussed in more detail.

“Why are the Building Safety Regulator as an organisation and the Chief Inspector of Buildings as an individual so quiet? The victims of Grenfell, the building safety crisis and the wider public rightly deserve to see a firm response from the regulator and clear leadership. Sadly, clear leadership from the regulator is lacking.“