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Inside Housing’s fire safety campaign
Inside Housing has launched a campaign to improve fire safety following the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Major sector bodies have backed Inside Housing’s campaign calling for action from social landlords and government to prevent a disaster like Grenfell Tower ever being repeated.
The campaign, Never Again, which launches this week, has been endorsed by the National Housing Federation, the Chartered Institute of Housing, Placeshapers and the G15 group of London’s largest associations.
The campaign calls for three specific actions from housing associations and councils, and action from government ministers to protect tower blocks in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
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Landlords are asked to immediately check cladding and external panels and promptly address any problems or risks found, as well as updating guidance on evacuation or ‘stay put’ policies and communicating this to tenants.
The campaign is also calling on landlords to use appropriate and qualified experts to carry out fire risk assessments on an annual basis.
Currently, there is no specific legal time limit for an assessment and no restrictions on who can carry them out.
The government is urged to carry out a long-overdue update to building regulations, fund the installation of sprinklers and provide advice on external insulation.
More asks may be added to the campaign as further detail about the disaster comes to light.
Never Again: campaign asks
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
Landlords
- Take immediate action to check cladding and external panels on tower blocks and take prompt, appropriate action to remedy any problems
- Update risk assessments using an appropriate, qualified expert.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
Government
- Provide urgent advice on the installation and upkeep of external insulation
- Update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.
