Independent Panel Condemns Construction Regulations in Aftermath of Grenfell Fire
Parliament wrote that I have been shocked by some of the practices I have heard about,
18, 2017
LONDON — An independent review prompted by one of Britain’s deadliest fires in modern times condemned British construction regulations on Monday as "not fit for purpose," saying they allowed dangerous latitude for cutting corners in a culture of "doing things cheaply." The June 14 fire
that consumed Grenfell Tower in West London killed 71 people and raised alarms about gaps in British fire regulations.
The 121-page report briefly but explicitly addressed a key weakness in the British regulatory system
that many experts said had played a major role in the Grenfell fire: a failure to require tests of building materials such as exterior cladding in real-world conditions rather than in laboratory or desktop experiments.
The report also called for an accreditation system for people working in the construction or inspection of high-rise buildings, for closer consultation with fire services, for more frequent risk assessments, and for penalties for fire safety violations
that would be severe enough to outweigh the savings from cutting corners.
"The government should significantly restrict the use of desktop studies to approve changes to cladding and other systems to ensure
that they are only used where appropriate and with sufficient, relevant test evidence," her report recommended.
Some clauses in the regulatory guidance had appeared to prohibit the use of exteriors as potentially combustible
as the cladding used on Grenfell Tower, which contained flammable insulation between sheets of aluminum.
