Ditch ‘slippery shoulders’ on building safety, MP urges

Another warned of a ‘merry-go-round of buck passing’.

Grenfell Tower was gutted by a fire which killed 72 people in 2017 (Aaron Chown/PA) (PA Wire)

Construction leaders should ditch a “slippery shoulders” attitude when they face safety problems, an MP has urged.

Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman made her plea during a House of Commons debate on building safety and resilience, as another MP who represents the gutted Grenfell Tower in Kensington and Bayswater warned of a “merry-go-round of buck passing” on housing.

The Chelmsford, Essex, MP said: “I will now just very briefly admit to a slightly guilty pleasure, which is that I quite like watching the programme Air Crash Investigation.

“Now, it might seem a bit macabre but I quite like how the airline industry – now the airline industry is not perfect and I do not want to give the impression that the airline industry is perfect, so anyone from the airline industry, I big you up a little bit but I don’t think the airline industry is perfect, but – how they investigate issues that have happened, how they investigate crashes and how they work out what went wrong and then do not point the finger of blame.

“No matter where the fault lies, they look at how they could have avoided it and how they can make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.

“If only we could only make the construction industry do the same and change that culture, rather than try to have the slippery shoulders ‘well it’s not my fault’, ‘well it was that subby’, or ‘it was this subcontractor over there’, ‘oh, well, it was the manufacturer’, whatever.

“Having worked in the construction industry for a long time, I know that that does happen a lot.”

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents in the UK, and issues reports which feature safety recommendations, if they are needed.

Ms Goldman also urged ministers to consider making fire services a statutory consultee for local authorities when they consider planning applications for high-rise buildings over 18 metres.

Councils must ask statutory consultees for their views on planning applications relevant to them, from a list which includes Historic England, Natural England and some parish-level bodies.

According to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government guidance, “local planning authorities will need to consider whether there are planning policy reasons to engage other consultees who – whilst not designated in law – are likely to have an interest in a proposed development”.

Joe Powell, the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater in London, said a safety probe identified flammable rendering on a building in his constituency.

“It’s a building that has approximately 50% social tenants and 50% shared ownership leaseholders who have scraped together the money to get on the housing ladder and have now been hit with a £400 a month increase in their service charge primarily driven by the dramatic increase in insurance after the fire inspection took place,” he told the Commons.

“In the short term, while we wait for the remedial work to take place, that is simply unaffordable for those leaseholders, so I certainly think the insurance industry is something we need to look at.

“In addition, this building is another example of this merry-go-round of buck passing that we talked about last week between local government, national government, developers, freeholders, housing associations, so we need clear timelines to speed this up.”

Sir Keir Starmer addressed MPs last Wednesday, after a landmark report into the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire was published.

The Prime Minister said: “I want to start with an apology on behalf of the British state to each and every one of you, and indeed to all of the families affected by this tragedy.”

Mr Powell further called for “incentives, I think, in the system – carrots and sticks to make sure that we don’t have this kind of never-ending situation where leaseholders and tenants are unclear about when the work will be done”.