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Dame Judith Hackitt calls for ‘root-and-branch review’ in construction after Grenfell
Dame Judith Hackitt, who earlier this year published a review of building regulations, has said that the construction industry needs a “tougher regulatory regime” with penalties for companies that don’t meet new higher standards.
Speaking to the annual Chartered Association of Building Engineers conference in Kenilworth yesterday, Dame Judith said it had taken the “tragedy” of Grenfell to “wake everyone up to the need for a change in construction industry culture”.
“People are looking for quick fixes but they need to understand that root-and-branch reform is required. This has to be a turning point to bring about the culture change we need,” she said.
She spoke about the need for a joined-up regulatory process which goes hand in hand with a “tougher regulatory regime that has real penalties and sanctions for those that don’t conform”.
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She told delegates that she believed improving safety was achievable.
“We need to think about buildings not as jigsaw puzzles that magically come together, they need to be treated as a complex system – a change in one small thing can have massive changes and impact integrity of the buildings,” she said.
Dame Judith’s report suggested wide-ranging changes to building standards, but stopped short of banning combustible cladding, a decision that drew criticism from Grenfell survivors.
In her speech this week she said that she wanted to drive out so-called value engineering – a phrase she said she would be “happy to never hear again”.
“We need to put a focus on the way in which buildings are procured. If we have a process that makes people bid at a cost they can’t afford to deliver at, we set ourselves up to fail,” she said.
She also clarified the role of approved inspectors in helping to enforce standards. Her review had suggested that private inspectors should be excluded from providing building control on high-rise towers amid concerns that they were not as neutral as their local authority equivalents.
But yesterday she said: “There is no reason why approved inspectors can’t be part of the joint competent authority, there just can’t be a conflict of interest. You can do both roles, just not on the same project.”
Never Again campaign
In the days following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017, Inside Housing launched the Never Again campaign to call 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.
One year on, we have extended the campaign asks in the light of information that has emerged since.
Here are our updated asks:
GOVERNMENT
- Act on the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations to tower blocks of 18m and higher. Commit to producing a timetable for implementation by autumn 2018, setting out how recommendations that don’t require legislative change can be taken forward without delay
- Follow through on commitments to fully ban combustible materials on high-rise buildings
- Unequivocally ban desktop studies
- Review recommendations and advice given to ministers after the Lakanal House fire and implement necessary changes
- Publish details of all tower blocks with dangerous cladding, insulation and/or external panels and commit to a timeline for remedial works. Provide necessary guidance to landlords to ensure that removal work can begin on all affected private and social residential blocks by the end of 2018. Complete quarterly follow-up checks to ensure that remedial work is completed to the required standard. Checks should not cease until all work is completed.
- Stand by the prime minister’s commitment to fully fund the removal of dangerous cladding
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
- Explore options for requiring remedial works on affected private sector residential tower blocks
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
- Take immediate action to identify privately owned residential tower blocks so that cladding and external panels can be checked
LANDLORDS
- Publish details of the combinations of insulations and cladding materials for all high rise blocks
- Commit to ensuring that removal work begins on all blocks with dangerous materials by the end of 2018 upon receipt of guidance from government
- Publish current fire risk assessments for all high rise blocks (the Information Commissioner has required councils to publish and recommended that housing associations should do the same). Work with peers to share learning from assessments and improve and clarify the risk assessment model.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out. Ensure assessments consider the external features of blocks. Always use an appropriate, qualified expert to conduct assessments.
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in the light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
- Adopt Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommended approach for listening to and addressing tenants’ concerns, with immediate effect
CURRENT SIGNATORIES:
- Chartered Institute of Housing
- G15
- National Federation of ALMOs
- National Housing Federation
- Placeshapers
