tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/grenfell-tower-39675/articlesGrenfell Tower – The Conversation2023-12-19T06:13:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2196882023-12-19T06:13:08Z2023-12-19T06:13:08ZGrenfell should have been a wake-up call – but the UK still doesn’t take fire safety seriously because of who is most at risk<p>In March 2023, a fire in Tower Hamlets, east London, claimed the life of Mizanur Rahman, a 41-year-old father-of-two from Bangladesh. <a href="https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2023/march/flat-fire-shadwell/">Five fire engines and 35 firefighters</a> attended the call to the two-bedroom flat in Maddocks House, on the Tarling West housing estate, in the early hours of the morning.</p>
<p>Rahman, who had only recently arrived in the UK, was rescued and taken to the Royal London Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, where he died from his injuries. On the night of the fire, estate residents claimed that <a href="https://tarlingwestestate.wordpress.com/2023/04/13/tarling-west-estate-residents-association-report-1-04-2023-on-recovery-ofresidents-of-18-maddocks-house-possessions-after-the-fire-on-friday-17-march-2023/">18 men</a> had been sleeping in the flat’s three rooms including a converted lounge – despite the premises only being licensed to accommodate a maximum of three people.</p>
<p>While the fire itself was caused by a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66774376">faulty lithium e-bike battery</a>, an inspection by the London Fire Brigade prior to the fire had <a href="https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/shadwell-flat-fire-maddocks-house-uk-housing-crisis/">raised serious safety concerns</a>, finding that the flat “was not in a good condition with multiple people living in it”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GDiGJ-fuRM8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Report on the Maddocks House fire (March 2023). Film by Rainbow Collective.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Seven months after the fire, Tower Hamlets Council took the flat’s landlords to court for breaches of the 2004 Housing Act. They have subsequently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/28/landlords-of-crowded-london-flat-that-caught-fire-plead-guilty-to-criminal-charges">pleaded guilty</a> to nine charges <a href="https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/News_events/2023/November/Tower-Hamlets-landlords-plead-guilty-to-overcrowding-charges.aspx">including</a> multiple failures to comply with licence conditions, carry out inspections and have a valid gas safety certificate, as well as allowing the premises to be overcrowded. The landlords await sentencing.</p>
<p>However, following the inquest into Rahman’s death, the assistant coroner did not comment on overcrowding in the property in his <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/prevention-of-future-death-reports/mizanur-rahman-prevention-of-future-deaths-report/">prevention of future deaths report</a>. He did, though, recommend that the government introduces standards regulating the sale of lithium batteries for e-bikes.</p>
<p>Ahead of the court case, <a href="https://grenfellunited.org.uk/about-us">Grenfell United</a>, a group of survivors and bereaved families founded days after the Grenfell Tower fire on June 14 2017, <a href="https://x.com/GrenfellUnited/status/1719025477854155043?s=20">pledged its support</a> to all those affected by the Maddocks House fire, stating:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Seven months since the Tarling West estate fire in which an innocent man lost his life … We stand with the family, residents, friends and all those campaigning for justice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Grenfell disaster – the UK’s worst post-war residential fire – claimed the lives of 72 people in <a href="https://www.mylondon.news/lifestyle/londons-richest-poorest-boroughs-average-23380005">London’s richest borough</a>, Kensington & Chelsea. The <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/">inquiry into the disaster</a> is expected to make a host of recommendations about the need to strengthen residential fire safety when it is finally published, after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/25/grenfell-tower-inquiry-final-report-delayed-again">yet more delays</a>, in 2024. But this is too late for Mizanur Rahman.</p>
<p>Indeed, more than six years after the Grenfell fire, community groups and homelessness charities have taken matters into their own hands to support renters and tenants who continue to be endangered by unsafe housing conditions in London and throughout the UK. But despite their best efforts, the risks facing residents of multiple-occupancy housing appear largely undiminished. Worryingly, policymakers – especially those who have responsibility for English housing and safety legislation – have seemingly forgotten the lessons from the UK’s <a href="https://uolpress.co.uk/book/before-grenfell/">past experiences of mass-fatality fire</a>.</p>
<h2>Another Grenfell-style fire?</h2>
<p>The Maddocks House fire added to widespread concerns that, despite Grenfell having been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/10/every-death-was-avoidable-grenfell-tower-inquiry-closes-after-400-days">an eminently avoidable disaster</a>, another major fire involving a large loss of life could happen in a bedsit, converted flat or other <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/part/7/crossheading/meaning-of-house-in-multiple-occupation#:%7E:text=254Meaning%20of%20%E2%80%9Chouse%20in%20multiple%20occupation%E2%80%9D&text=(f)rents%20are%20payable%20or,occupation%20of%20the%20living%20accommodation.">house in multiple occupation</a>. In part, this is the result of safety being neglected by <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2016-06-10/debates/40C06C83-5A10-4F0B-8855-C10BF76E4182/Renters%E2%80%99RightsBill(HL)?highlight=%22the%20term%20%E2%80%98rogue%20landlord%E2%80%99%20is%20widely%20understood%20in%20the%20lettings%20industry%20to%20describe%20a%20landlord%20who%20knowingly%20flouts%20their%20obligations%20by%20renting%20out%20unsafe%20and%20substandard%20accommodation%20to%20tenants%2C%20many%20of%20whom%20may%20be%20vulnerable%22#contribution-50867390-8CF2-4915-B369-5DA6BCFF2699">rogue landlords</a> who <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2016-06-10/debates/40C06C83-5A10-4F0B-8855-C10BF76E4182/Renters%E2%80%99RightsBill(HL)?highlight=%22the%20term%20%E2%80%98rogue%20landlord%E2%80%99%20is%20widely%20understood%20in%20the%20lettings%20industry%20to%20describe%20a%20landlord%20who%20knowingly%20flouts%20their%20obligations%20by%20renting%20out%20unsafe%20and%20substandard%20accommodation%20to%20tenants%2C%20many%20of%20whom%20may%20be%20vulnerable%22#contribution-50867390-8CF2-4915-B369-5DA6BCFF2699">“knowingly flout their obligations</a> by renting out unsafe and substandard accommodation to tenants, many of whom may be vulnerable”.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.fsmatters.com/London-HMO-landlord-receives-substantial-fine">recently completed case</a> saw a landlord and property management company <a href="https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/newsroom/council-prosecutes-landlord-poor-housing-conditions-hyde-park-gate-houseshare">fined £480,000 plus costs</a> for leasing an unlicensed 22-bedroom property with multiple fire safety and damp-related risks in the same borough, Kensington & Chelsea, in which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/ng-interactive/2017/nov/18/life-shadow-grenfell-tower-next-door">Grenfell Tower is located</a>. Throughout the UK, local authorities <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/9781003246534-10/regulating-houses-multiple-occupation-hmos-louise-harford-kevin-thompson">face multiple challenges</a> – including lack of resources, limits to their legal powers, and cultural barriers – when reactively trying to regulate the standard of privately rented accommodation in houses in multiple occupation (known as HMOs).</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p><a href="https://blog.shelter.org.uk/2023/06/government-is-risking-another-fatal-fire-by-deregulating-hmo-accommodation/">Housing</a> and <a href="https://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2019/05/21/government-complacency-risks-another-grenfell">fire safety</a> campaigners have repeatedly warned of complacency over enforcing safety in the UK’s private rented sector, among others. In recent years, the government’s own safety experts have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/16/experts-warned-government-of-tower-block-collapse-risk-last-year-leak-reveals">expressed concern</a> about ministers’ failures to tackle “potentially catastrophic life safety implications” in buildings ranging from tower blocks and HMOs to schools and hospitals.</p>
<p>Since 2022, the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9428/">cost of living crisis</a> has left <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statutory-homelessness-in-england-january-to-march-2023/statutory-homelessness-in-england-january-to-march-2023">record numbers</a> of disadvantaged people living in overcrowded, unfit and unsafe accommodation – including families with young children, frail older people, those with long-term health conditions, university students and migrants. They have little hope of accessing affordable and safe housing. And people living in the private rented sector are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2020-to-2021-feeling-safe-from-fire/english-housing-survey-2020-to-2021-feeling-safe-from-fire">twice as likely to feel unsafe in their home</a> as owner-occupiers, because of their fear that a fire might break out.</p>
<h2>A generation of rogue landlords</h2>
<p>While the campaign for improved standards of safety in HMOs originated in the 1960s, it intensified during the early 1980s following <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-06-07/debates/41061D9F-F385-4CF5-9B77-8EB8852381A3/IllegalMigrationBill?highlight=hmo%20fire#contribution-74FECC2F-0658-405B-905B-E19EBCDAA212">several mass-fatality fires</a> – as I chart in my new book, <a href="https://uolpress.co.uk/book/before-grenfell/">Before Grenfell: Fire, Safety and Deregulation in Twentieth-Century Britain</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Smoke coming out of the window of a large London apartment" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565792/original/file-20231214-15-a47go8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clanricarde Gardens fire (1981).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/">The National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shortly before Christmas 1981, <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5">fire gutted a residential property</a> in Notting Hill Gate, west London, killing eight residents and injuring many more. The property comprised 56 bedsits across three converted terraced houses on Clanricarde Gardens, a once-fashionable cul-de-sac which, with its low-quality bed-and-breakfast-style accommodation, by then aimed at the cheaper end of London’s rental market. Although estimates vary, almost 100 people are thought to have been sleeping in the property on the night of the fire, which started around four o’clock in the morning. Local newspapers quoted a resident being woken by “a tremendous shouting and screaming”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At first I thought it was a Christmas party – but then I knew from the sound that this was no party. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5">Fire investigators</a> would later find numerous defects in the property, including combustible partition walls, unprotected staircases, a maze of corridors without fire-stopping doors, and a dangerously high electrical loading.</p>
<p>Six of the eight people who died were adult migrants who had come to Britain from Latin America and eastern Europe to study and work; the other two were elderly British men. Many of the residents were employed in the low-paid hospitality sector.</p>
<p>The survivors, having lost their possessions, were clothed and put up in hotels – then interviewed by officials from the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) to determine their eligibility for rehousing. Due to a shortage of available housing, many were rejected. Some had no option but to <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5#footnote-061-backlink">move into the property next door</a> to the burnt-out shell of their former home.</p>
<p>The Clanricarde Gardens fire inquest exposed a generation of rogue London landlords who had placed profits before safety in their <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1982-03-18/debates/888c059e-7af2-4781-8516-8341eb21e941/Hostels(London)?highlight=fire%20clanricarde#contribution-11c52e90-a78c-40d9-83f9-37f12681b496">unregulated “Victorian hostels”</a>. Major shortcomings were also revealed in the level of oversight from RBKC, which was identified as having some of the <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5#footnote-060">worst housing conditions</a> in the capital, with unregistered HMOs comprising between a quarter and a third of its housing stock. <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5#footnote-059">Early warnings</a> about the dangerous condition of the Notting Hill property had not been acted upon by officers at the time of the fire, and the council was subsequently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jul/24/underfunded-and-overstretched-the-lawyers-seeking-justice-for-grenfell-tower-fire">found guilty of maladministration</a>.</p>
<p>The jury at the inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure, but found no evidence of negligence by the landlord. <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5">The coroner</a> angered campaigners and survivors by declining to add recommendations for the government to improve safety. He claimed that the need to reconcile cheap accommodation for homeless people with “expensive” fire precautions was “insoluble”.</p>
<p>In the aftermath, the Campaign for Bedsit Rights (CBR) – led by tenacious housing activist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/27/nick-beacock-obituary">Nick Beacock</a> – published a <a href="https://archive.org/details/firesafetyguidec0000unse">guide to fire safety</a> for tenants, issued a semi-regular newsletter, and collaborated with sympathetic members of parliament who advocated for statutory licensing and regulation of these “<a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1983-02-25/debates/a0b92dae-fe08-41fe-8191-3c86a5853e9e/Housing(HousesInMultipleOccupation)Bill?highlight=housing%20houses%20multiple%20occupation#contribution-0bc09dc4-c3a9-4f49-b88e-be8171cd818a">Dickensian</a>” lodgings. The urgency of the situation was marked by the scale of homelessness across the capital at that time, with rough sleeping <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1985/dec/20/homelessness-london">on the rise</a> due to cuts in housing benefit.</p>
<p>Yet, in February 1983, a <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1983-02-25/debates/a0b92dae-fe08-41fe-8191-3c86a5853e9e/Housing(HousesInMultipleOccupation)Bill">private members’ bill</a> to introduce licensing was defeated by the government despite enjoying strong cross-party support. Ministers defended the decision on the grounds of public spending restrictions and, <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5#footnote-052">in a quote attributed to housing minister George Young</a>, a reluctance to “add unnecessarily” to landlords’ costs in a way that might “discourage them from making accommodation available”. Throughout the 1980s, landlords’ interests were largely prioritised ahead of tenants’, in a decade that saw the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02673039608720868">deregulation of the private rental market</a>.</p>
<p>Four decades on, even after the public outcry following the Grenfell disaster, cases continue to highlight that, around the UK, local authorities vary widely in their interpretation and enforcement of their obligations over licensing rental properties. In many cases, they simply <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/19/landlords-double-income-ignoring-hmo-licence-overcrowding">lack the resources</a> to track landlords.</p>
<p>In July 2023, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/36/enacted">Social Housing (Regulation) Act</a> was given royal assent, introducing a more proactive system whereby complaints about the standard of <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/what_is_social_housing">social housing</a> can be investigated by the regulator. It has taken <a href="https://blog.shelter.org.uk/2023/07/royal-assent-transformation-social-housing/">almost six years</a> of campaigning by Grenfell United, Shelter and other organisations to get to this stage. However, the act does not cover the private rented sector, and much work is still needed to protect these residents.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gGcPtRcpeBU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A film by Grenfell United.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Years of inaction</h2>
<p>Over the decades since the 1983 defeat of the licensing bill, it is hard not to conclude that several deadly fires might have been prevented had the UK government introduced mandatory licensing, backed up by strong powers of enforcement.</p>
<p><a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5#footnote-059">One notable incident</a>, in November 1984, involved the death of a 27-year-old Bangladeshi woman, Mrs Abdul Karim, and her two young children, aged three and five, in a five-storey HMO in Westminster, central London. Despite being a priority for rehousing, the family had lived in a single room at the top of an unenclosed staircase for the previous nine months. In all, more than 50 people lived in the property, including 18 families who had been accommodated there by Camden Borough Council.</p>
<p>Firefighters found as many as seven people sleeping in a single room, and rescued a baby sleeping in a cot in a bathroom. “It was a miracle more people were not killed,” a survivor told a local newspaper. A local homelessness charity representative described the fire as highlighting “all the things we have been saying about the conditions homeless families are forced to live in”. Eventually, following a <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5#footnote-059">two-week occupation</a> of Camden town hall by furious families, councillors rehoused the survivors in improved accommodation within the borough.</p>
<p>This fire exposed <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673030903561842">historic racial inequalities</a> within London’s housing market, with many non-white families left to the whims of exploitative landlords. While the national media showed little interest, author Salmon Rushdie wrote an excoriating piece for the Guardian which was cited in a <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1984/dec/14/homeless-persons-accommodation">House of Commons debate</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When it started, no alarm rang. It had been switched off. The fire extinguishers were empty. The fire exits were blocked. It was night time but the stairs were in darkness because there were no bulbs in the lighting sockets. And in the single, cramped top-floor room where the cooker was next to the bed, Mrs Abdul Karim, a Bangladeshi woman, and her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter died of suffocation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rushdie pointed the finger of blame squarely at the racist landlords and councillors who persistently ignored the complaints of black and Asian families. He wrote: “Those of us who do not live in slum housing get used with remarkable ease to the fact that others do” – not least because black and Asian families “are far more likely than white ones to be placed in such ‘temporary’ places”.</p>
<p>After a Camden councillor was quoted by journalists as complaining that the town hall occupation had been “manipulated” by Bengali families" to jump the housing queue", Rushdie sarcastically added that “presumably not enough people have been burned to death yet” to improve the situation.</p>
<p>Following compelling evidence of systematic neglect of the property by its landlord, the inquest jury returned an open verdict on the deaths. Campaigners again called for powers to license hostels: Mel Cairns, an experienced environmental health officer, told a local paper: “People who look after dogs and cats need licences, and the same should apply to landlords who have human beings in their charge.”</p>
<p>The coroner concurred, demanding of ministers that “action be taken to prevent the occurrence of similar fatalities”. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/10/chris-holmes">Chris Holmes</a>, director of the Campaign for the Homeless and Rootless (and a future government adviser on reducing street homelessness), <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1984/dec/14/homeless-persons-accommodation">concluded</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The fire at Gloucester Place tragically shows the need for there to be a legal duty on local authorities to inspect this kind of property. If an HMO Act had existed, that family need not have died.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet, despite compiling its own evidence on the extent of the risk, successive consultations by Conservative governments during the 1980s and 1990s rejected mandatory licensing on grounds of proportionality and cost. <a href="https://archive.org/details/firesafetyguidec0000unse/page/2/mode/2up">Four in every five HMOs</a> were identified as having inadequate means of escape in a fire, while the risk of death or injury due to fire was ten times greater for people living in an HMO than in a single-occupancy family house, according to Home Office figures from the early 1990s.</p>
<p>In 1994, a fire in a Scarborough hostel in which a 33-year-old woman and her two-year-old child died finally led the prime minister, John Major, to <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1994/may/05/engagements">pledge</a> his government to investigate “the feasibility of introducing a licensing system to control such establishments”. However, the following year, the Department of the Environment <a href="https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/before-grenfell/section/68c02bc3-7033-4d94-a928-9a2896e9c3b5#footnote-018">concluded</a> that licensing “would lead to excessive cost and bureaucracy by forcing every local authority to follow a standard licensing approach”.</p>
<p>After further government obfuscation and more avoidable deaths, licensing of HMOs was finally introduced in the early 2000s. Although the ruling Labour party had <a href="http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml">promised to introduce licensing</a> in the lead-up to both the 1997 and 2001 general elections, it took further campaigning to secure the legislation through the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/contents">2004 Housing Act</a>. The legislation also introduced other measures to improve fire safety, including the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/housing-health-and-safety-rating-system-hhsrs-guidance">housing health & safety rating system</a>, which required local authorities to take legal action against landlords letting homes with serious hazards.</p>
<p>In 2006, statutory regulations were introduced to guarantee minimum standards within both the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/373/contents/made">licensing</a> and <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/372/contents/made">management</a> of multiple occupancy-style rental accommodation. Though far from the end point in the fight for safe housing for all, it signalled a major victory for campaigners such as Beacock. In recent years, however, owing to the growing housing crisis in London and other large UK cities, the problem of rogue landlords who are prepared to “game” the licensing regime has re-emerged.</p>
<p>Across the UK’s private rented sector, we see examples of landlords operating even after being refused a licence. Some fail to sign tenancy agreements, evict tenants without legal grounds, and allow unauthorised people to live in licensed properties. Such has been the scale of the problem that in 2019, the government issued <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5cffa8bce5274a3cfa8a4fea/Rogue_Landlord_Enforcement_-_Guidance_for_LAs.pdf">advisory guidance</a> to local authorities to “clamp down on these rogue landlords and force them to improve the condition of their properties, or leave the sector completely”.</p>
<h2>‘A price tag on our lives’</h2>
<p>London has a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3133531">history</a> of housing managed by a small number of unscrupulous private landlords prepared to use illegal and immoral practices to profit from the poor. Perhaps most famously, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/tcbh/article-abstract/12/1/69/1735310">Peter Rachman</a> operated in Notting Hill during the 1950s and ’60s, exploiting and intimidating his tenants so much that the phrase “Rachmanism” entered popular vocabulary. In 2019, his “<a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2019-01-31/debates/AE8030C8-FF1A-4BBF-A9EF-179616F5E6C9/SocialHousing?highlight=%22peter%20rachman%22#contribution-8D6AC161-3887-4907-8A1B-8EB5B5C3094D">inhumane activities</a>” were still being highlighted in a Lord’s debate on social housing.</p>
<p>But nor are local authority landlords exempt from criticism, as the Grenfell disaster exposed. At the time of the fire, the tower block was owned by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, with management services provided by its tenant management organisation (TMO). Many of its residents were tenants of the local authority or a local housing association, while a small number owned the leasehold to their flats or were private renters.</p>
<p>During testimony to the <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/">Grenfell Tower inquiry</a>, witnesses criticised both the borough and its TMO for ignoring safety concerns raised during the tower block’s refurbishment in 2015-16. <a href="https://assets.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/documents/transcript/Transcript%209%20November%202022.pdf">Residents</a> reported being made to “feel like second-class citizens – a nuisance, troublemakers, who should take what they were given and be grateful”. As one survivor, <a href="https://assets.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/documents/transcript/Transcript%2020%20April%202021.pdf">Emma O’Connor</a>, said in her testimony:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t think it’s fair … that all these corporate companies were allowed to be given the choice to choose what the price tag on our lives should be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some local authorities are beginning to tackle the problem through criminal proceedings. In <a href="https://news.camden.gov.uk/first-prosecution-by-camdens-new-rogue-landlord-taskforce/#:%7E:text=Monsoon%20Properties%20Limited%20and%20the,in%20multiple%20occupation%20(HMO)%20and">Camden</a>, a property management company was fined more than £49,000 in 2023 for fire safety breaches at an HMO and added to the Mayor of London’s “<a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/rogue-landlord-checker/3594/nojs?destination=rogue-landlord-checker">rogue landlord database</a>”. In 2020, Coventry City Council obtained a <a href="https://www.local.gov.uk/case-studies/successful-banning-order-against-rogue-landlord">banning order</a> against a landlord who had a “flagrant disregard for housing legislation”, including fire safety measures.</p>
<p>Research commissioned by the UK government into local authority enforcement of housing standards revealed that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-enforcement-in-the-private-rented-sector-headline-report/local-authority-enforcement-in-the-private-rented-sector-headline-report">non-compliance with the law is rife</a> across the private rented sector. Under half of local authorities in England reported that over 90% of notices served for the most serious <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/part/1#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9Chazard%E2%80%9D%20means%20any%20risk%20of,an%20absence%20of%20maintenance%20or">category-1 hazards</a> had been complied with in 2019-20, while nearly a quarter (23%) reported that fewer than 50% of hazard notices had been complied with.</p>
<p>Much work remains to be done around enforcement by local authorities, to ensure that all landlords meet minimum safety requirements. In the meantime, some appear unconcerned about the risks – and potential consequences – of playing with fire.</p>
<h2>Another avoidable death</h2>
<p>In March 2023, Rahman’s death in the Maddocks House fire exposed once more the problems facing many people who live in a permanent state of precarity, often at the mercy of an exploitative housing market. The flat was licensed for occupancy by three people across two families, yet <a href="https://tarlingwestestate.wordpress.com/2023/04/13/tarling-west-estate-residents-association-report-1-04-2023-on-recovery-ofresidents-of-18-maddocks-house-possessions-after-the-fire-on-friday-17-march-2023/">18 men</a> reportedly occupied the flat on the night of the blaze.</p>
<p>The landlords had converted three rooms into dormitory-like sleeping spaces to pack in as many tenants as possible, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/28/landlords-of-crowded-london-flat-that-caught-fire-plead-guilty-to-criminal-charges">allegedly earning</a> over £100,000 a year in rent. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64914885">One survivor</a> described how some of the residents, mostly Bangladeshi citizens, were “sleeping in the kitchen, some sharing beds, some sleeping on the floor” – a significant breach of the licence. There was a single shared toilet and bathroom, and the kitchen was out of bounds for cooking. For this, each tenant paid rent of up to £100 a week.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://tarlingwestestate.wordpress.com/2023/04/13/tarling-west-estate-residents-association-report-1-04-2023-on-recovery-ofresidents-of-18-maddocks-house-possessions-after-the-fire-on-friday-17-march-2023/">survivors</a>, who lost everything including their phones and passports, were housed in emergency accommodation by Tower Hamlets council, which owns the freehold to the property. The council <a href="https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=141846">passed an urgent motion</a> declaring the fire “an abuse of the most socially and economically vulnerable residents and workers by a greedy, vulturous and predatory class of landlord”.</p>
<p>The landlords, Sofina Begum and her husband Aminur Rahman (no relation to the victim), recently <a href="https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/News_events/2023/November/Tower-Hamlets-landlords-plead-guilty-to-overcrowding-charges.aspx">pleaded guilty</a> to a total of nine criminal charges at Thames magistrates court in east London, and are due to be sentenced in January 2024.</p>
<p>Anthony Iles, chair of the tenants and residents association, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/28/landlords-of-crowded-london-flat-that-caught-fire-plead-guilty-to-criminal-charges">commented</a> that the case provided “some small trickle of justice” and “serves as a warning to other landlords in the borough”. Conditions in Maddocks House were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/23/men-who-escaped-fire-in-crowded-london-flat-face-homelessness">described</a> by one resident as “worse than slums in Bangladesh”.</p>
<p>Yet the men living there, many of whom worked as delivery drivers, restaurant and warehouse workers (some while also studying at university), had been afraid to complain to the council about the conditions because of their fear of being made homeless.</p>
<p>Tower Hamlets council has <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/resident-groups-rally-to-support-survivors-of-flat-fire-in-east-london-left-facing-homelessness-81294">rehoused those residents</a> “who are entitled to recourse to public funds”. It recently <a href="https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/News_events/2023/October/Tower-Hamlets-Council-to-manage-housing-directly-from-November-2023.aspx">resumed responsibility</a> for managing its housing stock, and <a href="https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/News_events/2023/November/Tower-Hamlets-landlords-plead-guilty-to-overcrowding-charges.aspx">approved plans</a> to renew an additional licensing scheme for HMOs under its jurisdiction.</p>
<p>However, some of the Maddocks House residents have international student visas, which means they are <a href="https://whitechapellondon.co.uk/shadwell-flat-fire-survivors-council-support-ended/">not entitled</a> to homelessness assistance or housing benefit. They have been forced back into the informal housing sector, the ongoing victims of an affordable housing crisis in which the average private rent in Tower Hamlets has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/23/men-who-escaped-fire-in-crowded-london-flat-face-homelessness">risen</a> 33% since 2021 to £2,560 a month – far in excess of the earnings of these Maddocks House survivors.</p>
<p>Given the shortage of affordable housing in London and other UK cities, HMO-style accommodation remains the most, perhaps the only, practicable option for many people and families. In 2019, <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn00708/">nearly 500,000 properties</a> were officially registered as HMOs in England – although recent reports indicate the <a href="https://propertyindustryeye.com/englands-hmo-stock-continues-on-downward-trend/">market is now retracting</a>, due to the introduction of <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/221/made">tighter licensing rules in 2018</a> that extended provisions to cover two-storey HMOs.</p>
<p>But HMOs vary widely in terms of their size, occupancy, building type and amenities, which makes them immensely challenging for local authorities to regulate. These same local authorities suffered <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/local-government-funding-england">major reductions</a> to their funding from central government in the ten years prior to the COVID pandemic, and council leaders <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/26/jeremy-hunt-budget-cuts-chancellor-threat-flagship-councils-england-bankrupt">are warning</a> they are likely to face “a new wave of austerity” during the next parliament, whoever is in power.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4M7Aoj6gtrI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Tower Next Door: Living in the Shadow of Grenfell – a documentary by the Guardian.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fire <em>does</em> discriminate</h2>
<p>Contrary to the popular mantra that fire doesn’t discriminate, the poor and disadvantaged in UK and other societies are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jul/11/grenfell-tower-tragedy-worldwide-truth-fire-is-an-inequality-issue">disproportionately affected by fire</a> because they are forced to live in unsafe or overcrowded housing.</p>
<p>Over a span of more than 40 years, the fires at Clanricarde Gardens, Gloucester Place, Grenfell Tower and Maddocks House – and many others besides – show us that residents who raise safety concerns with their landlords are too often ignored or dismissed as troublemakers.</p>
<p>The survivors, bereaved and local communities affected by fires have repeatedly called on the government to act more decisively and comprehensively in the interests of residents rather than landlords. In the wake of the Grenfell disaster, they have again spoken out bravely, holding senior ministers to account for their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/29/grenfell-tower-inquiry-judge-to-meet-residents-and-survivors">pledge</a> that “no stone will be left unturned” in the quest to learn lessons from Grenfell. While their representative bodies continue to fight for justice and safer housing, their legal counsel at the Grenfell inquiry <a href="https://assets.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/documents/transcript/Transcript%207%20November%202022.pdf">warned</a> that, if we allow the lessons from Grenfell to be forgotten, we risk facing “another inquiry, following another disaster … where all the same points are being made”.</p>
<p>The UK government claims its response to Grenfell, via the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-building-safety-act">Building Safety Act</a> (2022), has been to introduce “groundbreaking reforms to give residents and homeowners more rights, powers and protections – so homes across the country are safer”. But this does not extend to large numbers of disadvantaged people and homeless families with children, all struggling to cope in the cost of living crisis.</p>
<p>Some landlords are adept at identifying loopholes in the legislation that enable them to evade their obligations towards tenants. Central government has been slow to close these or equip local authorities with the powers to force greater levels of compliance. There is little in the government’s “landmark” legislation (and related <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/42-million-to-support-delivery-of-building-safety-reforms">safety funding plans</a>) that indicates any more willingness than its predecessors to tackle the problem of rogue landlords within the private rented sector.</p>
<p>As long ago as the 1980s, pioneering campaign organisations like the Campaign for Bedsit Rights (which <a href="https://www.lgcplus.com/archive/shelter-takes-over-campaign-for-bedsit-rights-10-12-1997/">became part of Shelter in 1997</a>) recognised that fire safety is a social equality issue. Forty years and many fires later, it is long overdue that everyone in a position of power recognises this principle – and acts upon it to reduce fire inequality. It is too late for Mizanur Rahman, who died inside Maddocks House, and for the 72 people who lost their lives in Grenfell Tower in 2017. How many more lives must be lost?</p>
<hr>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Ewen received funding from an Arts and Humanities Research Council Standard Open Grant: Forged by Fire: Burns Injury and Identity in Britain, c.1800-2000. He would like to thank Anthony Iles (Tarling West TRA), Deborah Garvie (Shelter), Paul Hampton (Fire Brigades Union) and Rachel Rich (Leeds Beckett University) for their assistance with this article.</span></em></p>Fire is a social equality issue. Amid fresh concerns over rogue landlords and dangerous overcrowding, why have calls for change gone unheeded for so long?Shane Ewen, Professor of History, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130952023-09-08T12:49:39Z2023-09-08T12:49:39ZJohannesburg fire: there was a plan to fix derelict buildings and provide good accommodation - how to move forward<p>Thousands of Johannesburg inner-city residents occupy buildings in conditions like those that led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/johannesburg-fire-disaster-why-eradicating-hijacked-buildings-is-not-the-answer-212732">fire at 80 Albert Street</a> that killed at least 77 people. They are living in derelict multi-storey buildings, former office blocks, sectional title buildings, tenements, warehouses and factories.</p>
<p>The residents are mostly informal, unsalaried or poorly paid workers. Some are unemployed or on welfare grants. They <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.18772/22019103849.16">can’t afford even the lowest priced formal rental</a> or social housing in the inner city. Even if they could, they would be excluded by high demand and low supply.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.18772/22019103849.20">The accommodation they can access</a> frequently lacks running water and sanitation, security, ventilation, lighting and formal electricity.</p>
<p>Rooms are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.18772/22019103849.21">subdivided</a> with wood or cardboard. Electricity cabling, candles, paraffin lamps and generators contribute to the ever-present pollution and risk of fire. Homes and families’ lives are carved in the shadows of failing or non-existent infrastructure.</p>
<p>We are academics in the fields of urban planning, architecture and housing. We’ve applied our expertise to questions of urbanisation, poverty, housing design and management, housing rights and the inner city over many years.</p>
<p>Various complex factors have led to the occupation of abandoned inner city buildings under precarious conditions. The city’s approach to this reality evolved into a sophisticated and nuanced <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/-engineering-and-the-built-environment/architecture-and-planning/documents/jhb-innercity-housing-strategy2014-2021.pdf">housing plan adopted in 2017</a>. It was only partially implemented. While the city needs to refocus on this plan, immediate safety interventions are needed in occupied buildings. Many of them lend themselves to retrofitting or conversion. Existing management structures that involve residents offer lessons. </p>
<h2>Johannesburg’s intervention plans</h2>
<p>Constitutional jurisprudence protects what it calls “unlawful occupiers” from evictions that would lead to homelessness and requires the state to provide alternative accommodation. </p>
<p>Key to this jurisprudence, the 2011 <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.2989/CCR.2013.0011">Blue Moonlight case</a> put an end to the city’s policy of handing precariously occupied buildings to the private sector for profitable development.</p>
<p>The city has recognised that expansion of low-income housing is a critical part of the solution. In 2014 Mayor Parks Tau’s ANC administration <a href="https://www.gpma.co.za/news/ichip-presentation-2017/">commissioned a strategy and housing plan</a> which was approved by Herman Mashaba’s (DA-led) mayoral committee in 2017. The plan is concerned with the needs of the poor, though addressing all income groups. It takes an inclusive, contextual, practical approach that promotes choice.</p>
<p>The plan includes providing emergency services to critical buildings, and temporary emergency accommodation. It sets out strategies to increase supply of temporary and permanent housing by private providers, city entities and social housing institutions. This includes mechanisms for very low-income accommodation, including subsidised rental rooms.</p>
<p>The plan was well received but never adequately funded or <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-09-05-inner-city-housing-joburg-has-a-plan-it-just-hasnt-implemented-it/">carried out</a>. The projected budget for temporary emergency accommodation and alternative rental units for those evicted for 2017/2018 to 2021/22 was R561 million (US$29 million). Only just over one third was allocated.</p>
<p>In 2021, the city developed a <a href="https://joburg.org.za/departments_/Documents/Housing/TEAP%20Policy%20February%202021%20Approved.pdf">draft policy</a> for temporary emergency accommodation. It also reviewed the availability of such accommodation. Its housing department estimated it would need to provide 10,000 additional rooms or rental units to evicted communities. At the time under 2,000 units were already built, but mostly occupied or allocated. The city had projects to develop under 5,000 more units. Even if all current and future projects were fully funded and complete, which could take several years, they would cover less than half the existing need.</p>
<p>The approved plan acknowledged that criminals exploited residents by collecting rent in some buildings such as 80 Albert Street. The municipal-owned Johannesburg Property Company, which manages the city’s vast property portfolio, seemingly owner of several occupied buildings, has not released its inventory of properties.</p>
<p>Much of the housing plan’s analysis, approach and proposals remain relevant today. It has not been publicly available on the internet. We <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/-engineering-and-the-built-environment/architecture-and-planning/documents/jhb-innercity-housing-strategy2014-2021.pdf">placed it</a> on the <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/cubes/publications/media-articles-podcast-and-popular-press/">Centre for Urbanism & Built Environment Studies website</a> to inform ongoing responses to the inner-city housing emergency.</p>
<h2>A way forward</h2>
<p>As government departments seek to make funds available, solutions must build on existing knowledge and plans, local insight, expertise, experience and ongoing dialogue. We recommend a multi-pronged and coordinated strategy.</p>
<p>Supply of emergency and temporary accommodation alone cannot solve the crisis. Similarly, militarised police solutions are unconstitutional and incapable of addressing housing and safety in the inner city.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic triggered <a href="https://www.newframe.com/lockdown-forces-ministry-to-address-shack-settlements/">innovative ideas for retrofitting interventions</a> in informal settings, including safe access to water. The roll-out of water tank to areas with insuffucient water supply showed a capacity to respond to crises. With this hindsight, relevant government departments should focus their budgets on providing basic safety for occupied buildings in the immediate term.</p>
<p>Immediate responses should not involve removing occupants but enhancing safety through fire hydrants and extinguishers, emergency exits and clearing blocked access routes. Climate funds should be used to retrofit occupied buildings with solar panels, rainwater harvesting and other “green” measures.</p>
<p>Temporary containers can be placed alongside buildings for secure storage of items. In time, alternative partitioning materials must be introduced. Where one-way fire doors and fire wells exist, emergency LED lighting and mechanical door closers can be fitted.</p>
<p>Several buildings and communities are ready for these incremental improvements. Occupying communities are organised. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/p/Inner-city-federation-100069194417981/?paipv=0&eav=AfYM_UEIAaLdQqHtcbsI7GU7vCU8UVEhljOCeSUaUqwuOtFfXlAyGTH3eLsljeF6iv8&_rdr">Inner City Federation</a> already represents committees of over 70 buildings. They are mobilising to improve basic living conditions and to get rid of criminal syndicates. The <a href="https://icrc.org.za/">Inner-City Resource Centre</a> also has experience in community-based projects and engaging residents and the state. Collective tenure solutions such as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.18772/22019103849.18">community land trusts</a> can be considered.</p>
<p>Any accommodation with shared facilities requires high levels of management. Successful models include co-management with residents. These are already in place in several buildings. Where temporary shelters have become <em>de facto</em> permanent, urban management must adjust and not be abandoned, as at 80 Albert Street.</p>
<p>Opportunities for social housing and emergency shelter lie in the building register of the Johannesburg Property Company and other public entities. As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/may/25/spatial-apartheid-housing-activists-occupy-cape-town-gentrification">activists</a> and <a href="https://housingfinanceafrica.org/documents/urban-land-reform-in-south-africa-the-potential-of-public-property-and-impact-of-public-investments/">researchers</a> have pointed out, underused or vacant publicly owned land and buildings offer potential.</p>
<p>Private sector and social housing companies already respond in various ways with <a href="https://afhco.co.za/to-let/residential/">well managed low-income rental models</a>. However, qualification criteria and rents may just be <a href="https://developingeconomics.org/2021/11/10/inner-city-pressure-and-living-somewhere-in-between/">out of reach</a> for those in need. Faith-based organisations and non-profits have much to offer.</p>
<p>The challenges are global and responses in other contexts offer useful insights. Metropoles such as São Paulo have <a href="https://www.academia.edu/45033377/Ocupa%C3%A7%C3%B5es_de_moradia_no_centro_de_S%C3%A3o_Paulo_trajet%C3%B3rias_formas_de_apropria%C3%A7%C3%A3o_e_produ%C3%A7%C3%A3o_populares_do_espa%C3%A7o_e_sua_criminaliza%C3%A7%C3%A3o">extensive high-rise housing stock</a>, partly unused and informally occupied. In 2018, a building in São Paulo occupied by 171 families collapsed after a fire, killing seven people. In response, a multi-sector task force produced <a href="https://polis.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Situacao-das-ocupacoes-na-cidade-de-Sao-Paulo.pdf">a report</a> calling for measures to increase safety in occupied buildings. In some buildings, housing movements trained residents in disaster readiness – <a href="http://www.labcidade.fau.usp.br/brigada-de-incendio-do-prestes-maia-e-organizacao-das-familias-evita-tragedia/">preventing another potentially catastrophic fire</a>.</p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40301289">London’s Grenfell Tower fire in 2017</a>, which killed 72 people, rules were amended governing surveys and plans, material flammability, fire safety equipment, signage and lights.</p>
<p>Architects have proposed <a href="https://normanfosterfoundation.org/?project=essential-homes-research-project">innovative</a> and just <a href="https://masteremergencyarchitecture.uic.es/blog/">solutions to crises</a> in other large metropoles. In Johannesburg, the current downturn in the building industry means new graduates are a potential workforce requiring practical experience. With state support, architects experienced in <a href="https://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2013/05/20/marlboro_south.html">documentation</a>, <a href="https://docomomojournal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/167">renovation</a>, reuse of <a href="https://localstudio.co.za/architecture/multi-family-housing/">commercial</a> and <a href="https://savagedodd.co.za/Portfolio/slava-village-boksburg-johannesburg/">retail</a> space, and <a href="https://changebydesignjoburg.wordpress.com/change-by-design-2023-joburg/">participation</a> could mentor them.</p>
<p>We call for regular and institutionalised discussion forums in which academics, community leaders, NGOs and the private sector exchange insights with politicians and officials.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://affordablehousingactivation.org/experts/heather-dodd/">Heather Dodd</a>, a partner in Dodd + Savage Architects, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Huchzermeyer is a board member of the NGO Planact and a member of SACPLAN (the South African Council of Planners). She received funding from the NRF up until 2019. From 2016-2025 she receives funding from DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amira Osman receives funding from Amira Osman receives funding from The National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Tshwane University of Technology. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah le Roux receives funding from The National Research Foundation (NRF)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margot Rubin receives funding from the NRF through Off-Grid Cities project. I am also a visiting lecturer at the Wits School of Architecture and Planning and a visiting researcher at the GCRO.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon received funding from the Volkswagen Foundation "Knowledge for Tomorrow - Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa" postdoctoral grant between 2013-2016</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane receives funding from Gauteng City Region Observatory Board, Wits university. He is affiliated with South African Council of Planners and the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Klug is a member of South African Council of Planners (SACPLAN) and the Centre for Urbanism and the Built Environment Studies (CUBES). He has worked for consultancies involved in low-income housing policy formulation, and contributed to the City of Johannesburg's Temporary Emergency Housing Provision (TEAP) policy as part of a consultancy led by Lawyers for Human Rights. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Harrison receives funding from the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Priscila Izar receives funding from the University of Witwatersrand Research Office and from the Urban Studies Foundation in Scotland. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Charlton has worked for consultancies involved in low-income housing strategy and policy, and contributed to the Inner City Housing Implementation Plan led by RebelGroup. She has received funding for research from the NRF, Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, British Academy and ESRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarita Pillay previously received funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF), IJURR Foundation and the Canon Collins Foundation for her PhD research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Zack consults in the field of low-income housing and informality strategy and policy development, and contributed to the Inner City Housing Implementation Plan led by RebelGroup.</span></em></p>Armed police interventions are unconstitutional and incapable of addressing housing and safety in the inner city.Marie Huchzermeyer, Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the WitwatersrandAmira Osman, Professor of Architecture and SARChI: DST/NRF/SACN Research Chair in Spatial Transformation (Positive Change in the Built Environment), Tshwane University of TechnologyHannah le Roux, Associate professor of Architecture, University of the WitwatersrandMargot Rubin, Lecturer in Spatial Planning, Cardiff UniversityMatthew Wilhelm-Solomon, Writing fellow at the African Centre for Migration Studies, University of the WitwatersrandMfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane, Professor of Development Planning and Urban Studies, University of the WitwatersrandNeil Klug, Senior Lecturer, University of the WitwatersrandPhilip Harrison, Professor School of Architecture and Planning, University of the WitwatersrandPriscila Izar, Centennial Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Architecture and Planning, Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies, University of the WitwatersrandSarah Charlton, Associate Professor, University of the WitwatersrandSarita Pillay Gonzalez, Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the WitwatersrandTanya Zack, Visiting senior lecturer, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2037972023-04-13T14:59:24Z2023-04-13T14:59:24ZGrenfell: Steve McQueen’s film is a silent, unflinching reminder of lives devastated by fire<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520867/original/file-20230413-28-sj5hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3947%2C2951&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A memorial to Grenfell victims in west London.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/latimer-road-station-londonengland-14-june-1112975354">Globetrotters/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Wxqt7qabo">Oscar-winning artist</a> and filmmaker <a href="https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/grenfell-by-steve-mcqueen/">Steve McQueen’s new work, Grenfell</a>, is on show at London’s Serpentine Gallery. The 24-minute film – which the artist captured by helicopter in December 2017, six months after the fire – rotates around the Grenfell Tower in silence. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289">The fire</a> at west London’s Grenfell Tower broke out in the early hours of the morning, on 14 June 2017. Seventy two people died. A government inquiry was launched, but the recommendations of the first phase of the report have yet to be implemented. The second phase is expected later this year. Six years on, residents, survivors and families are <a href="https://grenfellunited.org.uk">still campaigning</a> for justice and the criminal investigation is ongoing. </p>
<p>McQueen’s project aims to ensure that Grenfell “lives on in the mind of the nation and the world long after the covering went up”. It challenges <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2023/mar/29/lest-we-remember-how-britain-buried-its-history-of-slavery">Britain’s history of forgetting its atrocities</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Steve McQueen looks straight to camera in a black and white photograph, wearing glasses and a white t-shirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520791/original/file-20230413-18-oozz0x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/about/press/grenfellbystevemcqueen/">James Stopforth</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Grenfell has no narration, characters or dramatisation. It was self-funded and will not be sold, nor broadcast. As I sit and watch the camera rotate around the burned shell of the tower, time stops. I notice every shallow inhalation I take while imagining the unimaginable.</p>
<h2>Remembering the people of Grenfell</h2>
<p>The film begins with aerial footage of a green landscape. The sounds of the helicopter add to the cacophony of birds and the thrum of life below. As the camera passes over the green hills, sirens can be heard from afar. Rows of houses replace the rural landscape and then, in the distance, three towers stand tall. As the camera approaches the buildings, the middle tower becomes distinctive.</p>
<p>All sounds of life disappear and the audience is forced to witness the aftermath of death. If there were any doubts about the destruction caused by the fire, then the film reveals its true desolation.</p>
<p>Each devastating detail is memorialised as the camera rotates around the tower. The audience is made to look through the spaces of where windows once were, while the proximity allows us to see into rooms where people died.</p>
<p>Grenfell seemed to be quickly erased from public memory for the majority and it seemed to all but disappear from the political agenda once the burned building was covered up with white plastic. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://d37zoqglehb9o7.cloudfront.net/uploads/2023/04/Grenfell-A6-FINAL-GUIDE.pdf">exhibition notes</a>, McQueen, who grew up on the nearby White City estate, explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I heard about the fire, I needed to do something … I feared once the tower was covered up it would only be a matter of time before it faded from the public’s memory. In fact, I imagine there were people who were counting on that being the case. I was determined that it never be forgotten. So, my decision was made for me. Remember.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The narrative is not focused on statistics, policies or even safety regulations – McQueen’s film invites a different pathway to remember the 72 people whose lives were stolen from within the apparent safety of their own homes. </p>
<p>Rather than attempting to dramatise the various stories of the residents of Grenfell, the film blurs the line between documentation and artwork.</p>
<h2>Accountability and justice</h2>
<p>McQueen’s film responds to American philosopher and activist <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346657905_Let_the_Atrocious_Images_Haunt_Us-Encounters_with_Conflict_and_Connection_in_Visual_Art-Making">Susan Sontag’s call</a> to “Let … atrocious images haunt us.” Through the process of haunting shown in McQueen’s film, the tragedy of the fire at Grenfell cannot be forgotten.</p>
<p>The report from the final phase of the government’s inquiry into the cause of the fire is set to be published later this year. But for many, there is still a sense of no accountability or justice for the families, survivors and communities surrounding Grenfell.</p>
<p>In her bestselling book, <a href="https://renieddolodge.co.uk/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race/">Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race</a>, journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge writes that: “faced with [the] collective forgetting” of Britain’s racist and violent history, “we must strive to remember”.</p>
<p>In Feminism Interrupted, writer Lola Olufemi explains: “Art is best utilised as a weapon, a writing back, as evidence that we were here.” Steve McQueen’s new artwork does exactly this. It is provocative because it implicates everyone who watches it, by asking them to bear witness, by not “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/27/steve-mcqueen-grenfell-tower-film-serpentine-gallery">letting them off the hook</a>”. It demands that we remember that the residents of Grenfell were here.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/grenfell-by-steve-mcqueen/">Grenfell by Steve McQueen</a> is showing at the Serpentine Gallery in London until Wednesday 10 May 2023. After this, the work will be placed in the care of Tate and the Museum of London’s collections.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa Macaulay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If there were any doubts about the destruction caused by the fire on 14th June 2017, then Steve McQueen’s film reveals its true desolation.Vanessa Macaulay, Senior Lecturer, School of English and Drama, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1950772022-12-01T16:32:03Z2022-12-01T16:32:03ZThe disturbing parallels between Awaab Ishak’s death in Rochdale and the Grenfell Tower disaster<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498007/original/file-20221129-12-eq5kwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Grenfell inquiry showed that every death incurred during the fire was avoidable.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/north-kensingtonlondon-july-18-2019-grenfell-1611374056">JessicaGirvan | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A senior coroner in Rochdale, a large town in England’s northwest, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/08/landlord-was-warned-of-mould-that-killed-toddler-in-rochdale-flat">ruled</a> that two-year-old Awaab Ishak died as <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-awaab-ishaks-death-says-about-the-state-of-social-housing-in-the-uk-expert-qanda-193746">a direct result</a> of prolonged exposure to mould, due to the <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Awaab-Ishak-Prevention-of-future-deaths-report-2022-0365_Published.pdf">repeated failure</a> of his family’s landlord to repair the property in which they lived.</p>
<p>Both the Rochdale case and the fatal fire at <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289">Grenfell Tower in west London</a> are characterised by the lack of accountability on the part of the housing provider and the landlord’s failure to listen to repeated warnings from the tenants affected. They have also seen allegations of racial bias and underhand tactics being used to dismiss tenants’ complaints. </p>
<p>Grenfell was the <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/06/13/grenfell-britains-worst-tragedy-since-wwii-remembered/698006002/">most catastrophic residential fire</a> in the UK since the second world war. And when the public inquiry closed in November 2022, Richard Millett KC, counsel to the inquiry, concluded that “every one of the deaths was avoidable”.</p>
<p>In response to Rochdale, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/21/michael-gove-accuses-social-landlords-of-complacency-awaak-ishak-death">has ordered</a> all social housing providers in England to make an urgent assessment of damp and mould, and other problems. </p>
<p>Gove has asked that they list the number of civil penalty notices and successful prosecutions made. And he <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/awaab-ishak-mould-housing-gove-b2231641.html">has pledged</a> to cut funding to those social housing providers, including the Awaab family’s landlord Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), found to be failing their tenants. </p>
<p>The government <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1060141/2020-21_EHS_Headline_Report_revised.pdf">defines</a> a “decent home” as one which is reasonably warm, in a reasonable state of repair, has reasonably modern facilities and services and, crucially, which meets the statutory minimum standard for housing. Since 2006, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9425/150940.pdf">housing health and safety system</a> rates any home containing what it terms a “category 1 hazard” – one that poses a significant safety risk – as non-decent. </p>
<p>According to the government’s 2020-2021 <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1060141/2020-21_EHS_Headline_Report_revised.pdf">survey</a> of housing stock in England, 16% of all homes (4 million dwellings) failed to meet the “decent homes” standard. In the private rented sector – which houses 4.4 million people – that number rose to 21%, while in the
<a href="https://theconversation.com/public-housing-needs-radical-reform-heres-how-149049">social sector</a>, it stood at 13%. A parliamentary report <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmcomloc/18/report.html#heading-1">published</a> in July 2022 found evidence that some social housing had “deteriorated to the point of being unfit for human habitation”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An overhead view of a residential area in England." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498028/original/file-20221129-9456-4qs0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498028/original/file-20221129-9456-4qs0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498028/original/file-20221129-9456-4qs0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498028/original/file-20221129-9456-4qs0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498028/original/file-20221129-9456-4qs0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498028/original/file-20221129-9456-4qs0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498028/original/file-20221129-9456-4qs0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Over one in five private-rented dwellings in England fail to meet the decent home standard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blackpool-lancashire-england-june-9-2018-1111017560">Philip Openshaw | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coroner Joanne Kearsley said that Awaab’s death should represent a “defining moment” for England’s housing sector. Surely, the defining, “never again” moment for housing was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-after-decades-of-inaction-politicians-still-havent-been-held-to-account-126164">Grenfell Tower disaster</a>, in 2017. And yet, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602365.2022.2042969">as I have shown</a>, housing policy in the intervening five years has been characterised by paralysis.</p>
<h2>How inequality endures</h2>
<p>The parallels between what has happened in Rochdale in 2020, and what happened in north Kensington at Grenfell three years earlier are distressing. On June 14 2017, 72 people were killed when a <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-four-years-after-the-disaster-are-our-buildings-safer-162202">fire</a> engulfed Grenfell Tower, where 85% of the victims were from minority ethnic backgrounds. </p>
<p>As my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602365.2022.2042969">research shows</a>, residents of the tower made multiple complaints, for years, about unsafe conditions. The degree to which these were not heeded echoes the experience of Awab’s family.</p>
<p>During the Grenfell inquiry, Alison Munroe KC, who represented victims, survivors and residents, underlined that racial discrimination and Islamophobia had played “a very real part” in the response to the tragedy. She pointed to a community impact assessment by Kensington and Chelsea police four days after the fire which <a href="https://www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk/news/racism-and-discrimination-played-a-very-real-part-in-the-response-to-this-tragedy-grenfell-inquiry-closing-statement">incorrectly predicted</a> outbreaks of crime and disorder, “especially when the majority of those affected are believed to be coming from a Muslim cultural background combined with the incident occurring during the holy month of Ramadan”. </p>
<p>In Rochdale, Awaab’s family have said the housing association’s response to their complaints about the state of the apartment was racist. The coroner noted that RBH had pursued a policy of refusing to tackle disrepair without an agreement from the claimants’ solicitors. She also highlighted that the association had claimed, without evidence, that the family’s lifestyle was at fault. The association has since <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/22/landlord-assumptions-family-mouldy-rochdale-flat-boroughwide-housing">admitted as much</a>. </p>
<p>Some research <a href="https://i-sphere.site.hw.ac.uk/2021/08/23/role-of-planning-in-meeting-housing-needs-of-bame-households-in-england/">has found</a> that the planning process in England is reinforcing racial inequality. Planners and housing professionals can lack the confidence, skills and resources required to actively address racial inequality in housing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A high-rise building with ochre coloured murals and a patch of grass with a green railing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498020/original/file-20221129-26-luyd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498020/original/file-20221129-26-luyd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498020/original/file-20221129-26-luyd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498020/original/file-20221129-26-luyd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498020/original/file-20221129-26-luyd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498020/original/file-20221129-26-luyd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498020/original/file-20221129-26-luyd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Landlords continue to not listen to tenants, say reports.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/social-housing-projects-birmingham-uk-commercial-1328687639">Mark N Dowell | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Thousands of homes are in poor condition</h2>
<p>Gove has admitted that “tens of thousands of homes are not in the state they should be”. He has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63739367?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA">pledged</a> to “ensure tenants’ voices are heard”. </p>
<p>This is a crucial point, on which landlords continue to fail. Michael Mansfield KC, who represented the survivors and relatives at the Grenfell inquiry, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602365.2022.2042969">has highlighted</a> the limited scope of the inquiry – which aimed only to investigate how the fire came about and who should be accountable. To his mind, the exclusion conferred by being a social housing tenant was reflected in the very limited opportunities afforded to survivors to speak or to ask questions during proceedings. “One of the functions has to be that the people at the centre feel represented and that isn’t working,” he said. </p>
<p>Gove has the power to demand that social housing providers improve their performance. But the Conservative party does not have a good track record here. In 2014, then prime minister and Conservative David Cameron promised <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/cameron-claims-victory-in-bonfire-of-the-building-regulations?post_id=333160&access=off">“a bonfire of regulations”</a>, a policy which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/jan/27/david-cameron-bonfire-of-building-regulations-future-homes">cut hundreds of standards for homes</a>. And Grant Shapps, as Cameron’s Housing Minister in 2010, scrapped the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tenant-services-authority-to-be-abolished-new-powers-for-tenants-to-improve-social-housing">Tenants Services Authority</a>, the government agency charged with regulating registered social housing providers in England.</p>
<p>If social housing providers are responsible for the 13% of non-decent homes identified, housing conditions are considerably worse in the private rented sector, over which Gove has few powers. As a result of the acute shortage of council housing, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3fbd23e9-1330-4514-a849-5a0d7577d167">one third of social housing tenants</a> live in the private rented sector, where they pay much higher rents, subsidised by housing benefit.</p>
<p>The private rental sector has minimal regulation, often poor conditions and, according to a 2022 <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/policy_and_research/policy_library/briefing_poor_quality_conditions_and_disrepair_in_private_rented_sector_housing">report</a> from the UK housing charity Shelter, even lower standards than housing associations and local authority housing. That report noted that 12% of private rental properties have a category 1 hazard and 6% have damp. A YouGov poll, <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/two_million_private_renters_put_up_with_poor_conditions_to_find_a_home">conducted by Shelter in May 2022</a>, found that one in six private renters – equivalent to 2 million people – face dangerous conditions, including 42% living with mould and 11% with electrical hazards. </p>
<p>Gove has pledged £14 million to bolster inspections in the private rental sector. However, that Shelter report <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/policy_and_research/policy_library/briefing_poor_quality_conditions_and_disrepair_in_private_rented_sector_housing">noted</a> that, in the decade to 2019, government funding for local authorities to regulate the private rental sector – and ensure good housing standards for the 4.4 million households it comprises – has been cut by 44%. While the shift in rhetoric is welcome, Gove’s additional funds will therefore only go a small way to making up the existing shortfall brought about by previous Conservative governments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Minton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A senior coroner in Rochdale has said of the toddler’s death that it should be a defining moment for social housing in the UK. Experts point out that we have been here before.Anna Minton, Reader, Department of Architecture & Visual Arts , School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1850402022-06-14T16:35:35Z2022-06-14T16:35:35ZGrenfell Tower: finally, the worst type of cladding is to be banned, five years on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468728/original/file-20220614-24-ynvg0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Residents have long bemoaned measures taken to make buildings look better, but not safer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-june-14-2018-view-1117120043">Ajit Wick | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five years after <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-the-difficult-task-of-creating-a-fitting-memorial-to-the-tragedy-184847">72 people lost their lives</a> in the Grenfell Tower fire, which broke out on June 14, 2017, the UK government <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/grenfell-tower-cladding-to-be-banned-from-all-projects?tkn=1">has announced</a> plans to ban the type of cladding used to cover the external walls of the North Kensington high-rise. These <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1080214/ADB_amendment_booklet_June_2022.pdf">revised building regulations</a> are to be put into effect in December 2022. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-four-years-after-the-disaster-are-our-buildings-safer-162202">inquiry</a> into the disaster concluded, in its <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/phase-1-report">first report</a> in 2019, that this cladding – polyethylene-filled aluminium composite panels, to be specific – was responsible for the fire spreading so quickly.</p>
<p>Polyethylene-filled aluminium composite panels are lightweight, stiff and cheap. They’re coated with durable paint and can easily be formed into architecturally interesting shapes. </p>
<p>Of all the common plastics, polyethylene is one of the most easily ignited and gives off the most heat <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123894">when burning</a>. Because it has the same chemical composition as petrol, when it is molten, it burns ferociously with a high heat release. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A detailed shot of a burnt high-rise building with some cladding still intact." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468722/original/file-20220614-16-40vasd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468722/original/file-20220614-16-40vasd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468722/original/file-20220614-16-40vasd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468722/original/file-20220614-16-40vasd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468722/original/file-20220614-16-40vasd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468722/original/file-20220614-16-40vasd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468722/original/file-20220614-16-40vasd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The central component of the cladding panels – polyethylene – is highly combustible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-28th-june-2017-editorial-670939831">John Gomez | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A multilayered fire hazard</h2>
<p>Polyethylene-filled aluminium composite panels are typically a 4mm thick composite of two sheets of 0.5mm aluminium sheets sandwiching a 3mm layer of polyethylene. If heated by a fire, the polyethylene melts and pours out, where it can easily catch alight, thereby spreading the fire downwards through flaming, molten droplets. </p>
<p>The panels themselves aren’t the only problem, however. “Rainscreen” cladding systems, which are attached to the outside walls of large modern buildings to improve appearance and thermal insulation, are comprised of these outer cladding panels combined with an inner ventilation cavity (50mm wide) and a layer of insulation (100mm to 200mm thick). </p>
<p>This means that from the outside going in, after the cladding panel, there is a ventilated cavity and insulation, which is often combustible (usually phenolic foam or polyisocyanurate foam in the UK). This provides the fire with additional fuel, which burns more slowly. As a result, the contents of individual flats can catch fire. Catastrophic loss of life can follow, as occurred in the Grenfell Tower fire.</p>
<p>Critically, the air-gap, which is used to prevent moisture build-up, acts as a chimney. It allows flames to grow upwards inside it, inaccessible to firefighters’ hoses. </p>
<p>Conversely, in incidents where polyethylene-filled aluminium panels have ignited on buildings without insulation, such as the 2016 fire at the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-35208484">Address Downtown Hotel in Dubai</a>, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/lacrosse-fire-ruling-sends-shudders-through-building-industry-consultants-and-governments-112777">the 2014 fire at the Lacrosse Building</a> in Melbourne, flames have ripped up the outside of the building in minutes, but lives have not been lost. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fire hoses rolled up on a fire truck" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468725/original/file-20220614-19-4h9n2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468725/original/file-20220614-19-4h9n2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468725/original/file-20220614-19-4h9n2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468725/original/file-20220614-19-4h9n2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468725/original/file-20220614-19-4h9n2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468725/original/file-20220614-19-4h9n2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468725/original/file-20220614-19-4h9n2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Firefighters have difficulty accessing the inner air gaps in these cladding systems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/compartment-rolled-fire-hoses-on-engine-693614314">Azami Adiputera | Shuttertstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inadequate regulation</h2>
<p>Other cladding panel types include high-pressure laminate (similar to the material used to make kitchen worktops), which also burns with disastrous consequences. This is what happened in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-lakanal-house-were-not-heeded-then-grenfell-happened-80051">2009 Lakanal House fire</a> in London and the fire at <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-53597167">The Cube in Bolton in 2019</a>. </p>
<p>There are estimated to be three times as many buildings clad with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/17/bolton-blaze-housing-and-fire-chiefs-hit-out-over-cladding-lottery">this laminate</a>. The combination of both types of cladding panel (polyethylene-filled aluminium composite and high-pressure laminate) has led to thousands of occupants being unable to sell their homes.</p>
<p>Since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-it-would-have-been-like-to-be-caught-in-the-great-fire-of-london-64469">Great Fire of London</a> in 1666, the use of combustible walls and roofs have been banned in England. The 2010 building regulations stated that “the external walls of the building shall adequately resist the spread of fire over the walls and from one building to another, having regard to the height, use and position of the building”. </p>
<p>But guidance as to how this regulation may be met was given in the 2006 edition of the UK government’s 180-page <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441669/BR_PDF_AD_B2_2013.pdf">Fire Safety: Approved Document B</a>. It explains that this can be achieved by the use of non-combustible products on the outside walls of the building, but it also allowed combustible products to be used, provided they met certain criteria (published separately in a <a href="https://www.brebookshop.com/details.jsp?id=327140">document known as BR135</a>) when exposed to fire in a large-scale test (following the <a href="https://shop.bsigroup.com/products/fire-performance-of-external-cladding-systems-test-method-for-non-loadbearing-external-cladding-systems-fixed-to-and-supported-by-a-masonry-substrate/tracked-changes">BS 8414 test standard</a>).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s10694-020-00993-z">Our research has shown</a> the inadequacy of this approach, because the ideal test environment differs significantly from the actual building. This guidance essentially made the use of combustible products on the outside walls of tall buildings possible. It required that these products either meet the BR135 criteria, or, in the absence of a test result, that a fire consultant undertake what is known as a “desktop study” to determine whether they would be likely to meet the criteria. </p>
<p>Climate change was used by the insulation industry to persuade regulators to increase the insulation requirements of modern buildings to conserve heat. This was done without considering the fire safety consequences. </p>
<p>The climate emergency is undeniably the biggest threat to humans and our planet. Domestic space and water heating accounts for <a href="https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/climate-change-science-solutions/climate-science-solutions-heating-cooling.pdf">around 20% of carbon emissions</a>, and insulation reduces those emissions. But there are many ways to reduce carbon emissions, starting with leaving fossil fuels in the ground. </p>
<p>Some insulation products, such as glass wool and stone wool are non-combustible, and can safely be put on the external face of a building. Other insulation products (such as those phenolic or PIR foams, themselves derived from fossil fuels) have been shown to be safe in a fire only when enclosed in solid masonry. This however is more expensive, and may not be feasible when refurbishing an existing building. </p>
<p>The Grenfell inquiry has revealed gaping holes in the procedures for ensuring building fire safety, from product manufacturers, test laboratories, third-party certifiers, builders, architects and even regulators. </p>
<p>From a regulatory point of view, allowing combustible products to be used on external walls in the first place has been shown to be counterproductive. In many cases, they have actually been removed but not replaced. This has improved fire safety, but deprived the occupants of the insulation they had previously benefited from. </p>
<p>Further, the carbon emissions associated with remediation of buildings following the Grenfell Tower fire, to ensure fire safety, are likely to be greater than the potential savings from the improved insulation. Consequently, if non-combustible insulation and non-combustible cladding panels had been specified by the building regulations, not only could the Grenfell tragedy have been avoided, but the adverse climate effects of all the other unsafely clad buildings could have ultimately been lessened.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Hull does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Inadequate building regulations led to combustible products being used on external walls.Richard Hull, Professor of Chemistry and Fire Science, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1849722022-06-14T15:59:09Z2022-06-14T15:59:09ZGrenfell Tower anniversary: how a quilt in the making is a symbol of the community’s love and quest for justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468621/original/file-20220613-26-pol3fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quilts are a repository of memory, personal and collective.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tuesday Greenidge is a multimedia artist based in North Kensington, London. When Grenfell tower caught alight on the night of June 14, 2017, her daughter was in the lift. She managed to escape. She came to her mother’s home to tell her Grenfell was on fire. </p>
<p>In the five years since, Greenidge has been working on a quilt <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-the-difficult-task-of-creating-a-fitting-memorial-to-the-tragedy-184847">in memory</a> of the 72 people who lost their lives that night. As she explained in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-61511903">a recent BBC interview</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I wanted to salvage all the messages of love and condolence and defiance and prayers that grew organically around the walls and the fences around our community.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aqEo4GgXrRs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The Grenfell memorial quilt is inspired both by the world’s largest quilt, the Portuguese <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-patchwork-quilt#:%7E:text=The%20world's%20largest%20patchwork%20quilt,completed%20on%2018%20June%202000.">manta da cultura</a> and the fabled <a href="https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history">Aids memorial quilt</a> (which, in its first, 1987 iteration, featured the names of 1,920 people who had died from the virus). Greenidge’s idea is that it will ultimately be as wide and as long as Grenfell tower itself. </p>
<p>Artistically, this project is a monumental undertaking. Socially, it operates as a vital connector, a way for people to come together, to remember, to talk – and hopefully, to heal. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large patchwork quilt with decorative elements in many colours, against a yellow wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468610/original/file-20220613-14-27pvs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468610/original/file-20220613-14-27pvs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468610/original/file-20220613-14-27pvs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468610/original/file-20220613-14-27pvs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468610/original/file-20220613-14-27pvs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468610/original/file-20220613-14-27pvs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468610/original/file-20220613-14-27pvs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first 3.65m-wide block of the quilt features several names – Moses, Tony, Yasin – of the deceased.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have been designing and making quilts, individually and collaboratively, for over 25 years. As a textile academic, practitioner and researcher, I have found that quilt-making gives people <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803249851/">the means to engage</a> with the key issues of our time, be it social injustice, migration, identity, sustainability or health and wellbeing. </p>
<h2>How a quilt is about preserving memory and bearing witness</h2>
<p>Quilt-making is an art form with a <a href="https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ndif/article/download/1112/1176/4873">long</a> and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1415959/Threads_of_Hope_The_Living_Healing_Quilt_Project">global</a> history, which stretches back to <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/an-introduction-to-quilting-and-patchwork">medieval times</a>. Generally comprised of three layers of fabric, the top often pieced together in a patchwork, quilts are a kind of repository for memories. </p>
<p>Most commonly used as bedclothes, quilts quite literally provide comfort and protection. But this capacity extends beyond their practical uses, too. I have found that they are an important non-verbal means of communication. Greenidge has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-61511903">said as much</a>. Speaking of the night of the fire, she has said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s only years after that you can find the actual words to kind of describe it. That’s why I make art, to find other ways to express how I felt.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She began stitching small patches at home, then started running a weekly sewing bee in various locations. Every Tuesday the group now meets in the North Kensington library. Anyone is welcome to join in. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A detail of the quilt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468608/original/file-20220613-15-lugz4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468608/original/file-20220613-15-lugz4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468608/original/file-20220613-15-lugz4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468608/original/file-20220613-15-lugz4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468608/original/file-20220613-15-lugz4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468608/original/file-20220613-15-lugz4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468608/original/file-20220613-15-lugz4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of the embroidered messages and drawings are recreations of those left around the base of the tower in the wake of the fire.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Talking about making the quilt communally, she <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-61511903">has said</a> that it feels wonderful, “like the power of people when they come together”. She says she dreams of it being taken up by BBC One’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03myqj2">Great British Sewing Bee</a> and a nationwide army of quilters. </p>
<p>This power starts with the basic component of which quilts are made. Cloth is a potent physical reminder of people; the smell, the texture or simply the feel of a garment can help us to recall a presence. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A detail of the quilt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468616/original/file-20220613-2481-ssniiq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468616/original/file-20220613-2481-ssniiq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468616/original/file-20220613-2481-ssniiq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468616/original/file-20220613-2481-ssniiq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468616/original/file-20220613-2481-ssniiq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468616/original/file-20220613-2481-ssniiq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468616/original/file-20220613-2481-ssniiq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the public are invited to send in messages to contribute to the quilt.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because it is made from donations, the Grenfell quilt has its history inscribed upon its surface. Slowly, names of the people who died in the fire are being stitched on to the quilt, along with green crocheted hearts, stuffed animal toys and embroidered versions of the spontaneous messages and drawings people left on the walls and fences around the tower. These fabric mementos act as sensory affirmations that these people are not forgotten. </p>
<h2>The quilt as collective action</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history">Aids memorial quilt</a> was a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470617/">visceral and emotional response</a> to social injustice and loss connected to the Aids crisis. As Gregg Stull, one of the academics involved in exhibiting it early on, <a href="https://scholar.umw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=theatre_dance">wrote in 2001</a>, “The eloquence of the quilt will stand as witness to a terrible time and a devastating loss of lives.” Similarly, the Grenfell quilt serves as a collaborative tool in a shared process of healing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A number of large-scale quilted pieces installed on the ground in Washington DC." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468617/original/file-20220613-22-aq9hci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468617/original/file-20220613-22-aq9hci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468617/original/file-20220613-22-aq9hci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468617/original/file-20220613-22-aq9hci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468617/original/file-20220613-22-aq9hci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468617/original/file-20220613-22-aq9hci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468617/original/file-20220613-22-aq9hci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Aids memorial quilt now features over 50,000 panels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jfgallery/7625590886/in/photostream/">Cocoabiscuit | Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The names sewn into the quilt are also reminiscent of <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/17211041.pdf">signature quilts</a>. Featuring a mass of needlework autographs, they began in the US and gained popularity <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/books/all-books/quilts-1700---2010-hidden-histories-102717.html">in the UK</a> in the late 19th century. </p>
<p>While not as plentiful or varied as their American counterparts, I have <a href="https://lynnsetterington.co.uk/british-signature-cloths/">unearthed</a> a substantial number of British <a href="https://museumandarchives.redcross.org.uk/objects/27556">signature quilts</a> in museums from the Quilters Guild in York to the Moravian community archive in Greater Manchester and several private collections. Made as fundraisers during the two world wars, these quilts are stitched commemorations of people and place. </p>
<p>In 2011, I worked with a refugee and asylum seekers organisation in East Manchester, called Rainbow Haven, to create <a href="https://lynnsetterington.co.uk/rainbow-haven/">a contemporary signature quilt</a>. Much like the Grenfell quilt, it shines a light on an important but underrepresented group.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A detail of the quilt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468612/original/file-20220613-19-cwk56p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468612/original/file-20220613-19-cwk56p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468612/original/file-20220613-19-cwk56p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468612/original/file-20220613-19-cwk56p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468612/original/file-20220613-19-cwk56p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468612/original/file-20220613-19-cwk56p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468612/original/file-20220613-19-cwk56p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tuesday Greenidge and her fellow sewers meet weekly to add new donations.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Grenfell quilt, with its focus on <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/were-no-closer-to-justice-weve-got-no-hope-residents-say-on-fifth-anniversary-of-grenfell-tower-fire-1682004">the overlooked</a> serves as a soft, tactile, portable counterpoint to the ubiquitous hard memorials, fixedly located in parks and city centres. When it is finished, this pieced cloth will be 67m long, as long as the tower is tall. Already, it stands as a sobering reminder of the enormity of this community’s loss. </p>
<p><em>The Grenfell memorial quilt will be on show at the <a href="https://www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk">Festival of Quilts</a>, August 18-21, 2022, at the NEC in Birmingham. To find out more, follow on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/grenfellmemorialquilt/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/grenfellquilt?lang=en">Twitter</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynn Setterington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What started out as an instinctive and private response to trauma has become a collective process of grieving and commemoration.Lynn Setterington, Senior Lecturer Textiles in Practice, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1848472022-06-13T13:44:36Z2022-06-13T13:44:36ZGrenfell Tower: the difficult task of creating a fitting memorial to the tragedy<p>In the days and weeks after the 2017 <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-disaster-how-did-the-fire-spread-so-quickly-79445">Grenfell Tower tragedy</a>, in which 72 people lost their lives in a fire that consumed the 24-storey residential block in North Kensington, London, dozens of memorials appeared in the vicinity of the building. People brought flowers and pictures and green ribbons. They made hearts and mosaics. They painted graffiti. They went on silent walks. </p>
<p>Five years on, many of these spontaneous creations are still there. They speak powerfully to the pain and loss in the community. But through lack of maintenance and ownership, or simply because they were not designed to withstand the elements and the passing of time, they are already showing signs of decay. The risk of their disappearing entirely comes with the fear that the memory of what happened will be lost too.</p>
<p>This is why, in 2019, the Grenfell Tower memorial commission was created. The purpose was to formalise how the site would be remembered and to ensure the community is <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-housing-tenants-need-their-voices-heard-heres-how-to-make-it-happen-130265">heard</a>. </p>
<p>In May 2022, the commission published <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61456786">an interim report</a> entitled Remembering Grenfell: Our Journey So Far. It relays the breadth of ideas and concerns expressed to date, over what form this memorial should take.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877916621000497">Research shows</a> that collectively remembering a difficult past in this way – via a structure or object intended to endure – is not an easy task. For a memorial to serve its purpose, it needs to be peaceful and reflective. It needs to promote <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-remembering-matters-for-healing-94565">remembrance</a>, hope and community. Respect is fundamental. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A green-painted section of wall with a floral mosaic, floral tributes and written messages." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CAPTION.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/north-kensingtonlondon-july-18-2019-memorial-1611582916">JessicaGirvan | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to create a fitting memorial</h2>
<p>The Grenfell Tower memorial commission represents three main communities: bereaved family members; survivors of the fire; and residents of the Lancaster West Estate, in which the tower stands. With the help of public engagement company Kaizen, it has sought to reach as many people as possible – via recorded conversations, online community meetings and weekend drop-in sessions – and will continue to do so until January 2023. </p>
<p>A design brief will then be developed in order to open a public competition between April 2023 and April 2024. The plan is to start building the memorial by December 2024. </p>
<p>So far, as the report relays, about 20% of bereaved individuals, 6.2% former residents of Grenfell tower and Grenfell Walk (who have now been fully relocated to new homes) and 28% of the residents of the wider Lancaster housing estate, have already shared their views. This is a good starting point. </p>
<p>With over 2,000 participants, recognising the views of all those affected, and co-designing something that encompasses all those views, is a challenge. As the report’s authors put it, “part of the way forward might be to accept that we cannot make all the pain go away or make it better.” </p>
<p>Many bereaved family members are still grieving and are simply not ready to engage in the memorial design. The commission is nonetheless adamant to “never make a decision by numbers, without thinking through whether it meets the needs of bereaved families as well as others.” The silence of these community members should also be part of the remembrance process. </p>
<p>The site of the memorial will become a sacred space, a place where the remains of the victims that were not identified will be put to rest and a place where those who were can be honoured by their families.</p>
<p>The report speaks to people’s hopes that the memorial will materialise the pain of families and also their collective determination that this never happen again. “Justice,” the authors write, “is incredibly important to the Grenfell community.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, the aim is is that the site become a beacon to ensure the nation does not forget this shameful episode. And that it never be used as housing again. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A shot of a high-rise building that has been burned." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tower stands as a constant reminder of the tragedy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-june-24-2017-666265843">dominika zara | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The shapes the memorial could take</h2>
<p>In keeping with other <a href="https://theconversation.com/memorials-that-go-beyond-boring-statues-of-big-men-on-bronze-horses-65069">memorial</a> projects around the world, the participants have highlighted several key notions that should underpin the design: peaceful and reflective; respect and remembrance; hope and positivity; community and love. The report shows how these ideas are being kept front and centre:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Perhaps through art, our disappointment, anger, fear, guilt and sorrow could find a place of respect at the heart of the memorial, rather than being silenced or pushed to the side. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Three options for the structure itself are being explored: a garden (potentially with a water feature and a children’s play area); an artwork or monument; or a building. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2314682435?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">National Memorial Arboretum</a>, in Staffordshire, which is the UK’s centre of remembrance for fallen servicepeople, shows how gardens can provide the quiet people need for reflection. Being in nature – to experience the seasons and the passing of time – also brings a sense of hope and positive thoughts about the future. Research also shows that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277953692903603">landscapes designed to be therapeutic</a> may help with the grieving process.</p>
<p>Artworks and monuments have been shown to be effective memorials, too, particularly when they include information about those who lost their lives. To <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877916621000497">memorialise those who died</a> during Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976-1983), the Park of Memory was created in 2004 and comprises a garden and memorials, with the names of all the disappeared inscribed on long walls. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two small children touch a long wall on which thousands of names are inscribed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Those who disappeared in Argentina’s military dictatorship are remembered, by name, in the Park of Memory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/memory-park-buenos-aires-argentina-716721217">J GONZALEZ | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Grenfell commission’s report highlights that there is no consensus yet about how much information could be used in the memorial, be it in the form of pictures or personal stories. </p>
<p>Few people were in favour of a building, potentially a museum, since this could bring tourists to the area and adversely impact the peacefulness of the memorial. But <a href="http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/33181/">as my research shows, </a> combining the authenticity of a historic site with the pedagogical aspect of memory can work. The Otto Weidt Museum in Berlin combines the factory in which Weidt, a pacifist factory owner, tried to help Jewish workers escape from the Gestapo, with a documentation centre located next door. </p>
<p>Some people have suggested a separate exhibition on the Grenfell disaster, to be held at the Museum of London. Separating out the spaces for reflection and for education is a common solution, as has been done Buenos Aires. The main memorial museum is located not in the Park of Memory but in the former ESMA building, the Argentine army mechanics school and clandestine torture centre.</p>
<p>The Grenfell Tower memorial commission has no bearing on the future of the tower itself – on whether it is kept or demolished – as this is the government’s responsibility. </p>
<p>The tower is a constant reminder of the tragedy. For many it causes a huge strain on their mental health. Bereaved families, former and current residents in the area may need more time. Some may never be ready to talk about how to memorialise this tragedy. </p>
<p>A distinct memorial, whichever form it takes, will be a place for all, to remember and to fight for justice, devised in a truly grassroots manner. I encourage you to read the commission’s report in full. The challenge it has taken on is as sad and difficult as it is laudable. And its members are in it for the long haul.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Souto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Designing a memorial that helps the community grieve and heal is no easy task.Ana Souto, Senior Lecturer in Architectural History, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1622022021-06-14T04:49:58Z2021-06-14T04:49:58ZGrenfell: four years after the disaster, are our buildings safer?<p>In the four years since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-disaster-how-did-the-fire-spread-so-quickly-79445">Grenfell Tower fire</a>, which led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-a-year-on-heres-what-we-know-went-wrong-98112">unconscionable deaths</a> of 72 people, one key question remains unanswered. Are our buildings any safer? The short answer is: not yet.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/the-guardian-view-on-lessons-from-grenfell-when-money-comes-first">facts</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-it-took-specialist-journals-and-social-media-to-uncover-the-real-story-149180">figures</a> uncovered in the ongoing <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/about">Grenfell Tower inquiry</a> and other investigations, continue to shock. An initial key finding of the inquiry’s first <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/phase-1-report">report</a> in 2019 was that the external cladding that surrounded Grenfell Tower was largely responsible for the fire spreading so quickly. </p>
<p>Since the fire, over 400 other high rise buildings surveyed around the country have been found to have external wall materials similar to those used on Grenfell Tower. Several <a href="https://www.manchesterfire.gov.uk/media/2118/cube_report_v11_tagged.pdf">more recent</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57056009">tower block fires</a> also show serious fire hazards in high-rise buildings remain. </p>
<p>The Grenfell inquiry’s recommendations so far have focused, primarily, on fire-safety legislation, the readiness and operational challenges of emergency services and, crucially, on how everyone – from developers to the London Fire Brigade (LFB) – needs to have a better grasp of how high rises are built and the challenges they pose.</p>
<h2>Understanding high rises</h2>
<p>There’s still a long way to go in terms of assessing existing buildings, and ensuring their inhabitants’ safety. This will require a joint-up strategy on part of the government, fire services, builders and manufacturers to ensure fire safety in high-rise buildings.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-lakanal-house-were-not-heeded-then-grenfell-happened-80051">Much has been written</a> about how the Grenfell tragedy showed that lessons from the Lakanal House, which killed six people in a south London tower block eight years earlier, were not heeded. The Fire and Rescue Service in general, and its fire-risk assessments in particular, were shown to be inadequate. </p>
<p>To prevent such a tragedy from happening again, the state has put £1.6 billion towards dealing with unsafe cladding systems on residential buildings of 18 metres and over. Before COVID hit, the government pledged to <a href="https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/Protection-and-Building-Safety/Protection-Board">inspect and review</a> all high-rise buildings in England by the end of 2021. It is not clear to what extent the pandemic has hampered that process. </p>
<p>The government is also supporting <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/978810/Quarterly_Thematic_Update_on_progress_against_the_Grenfell_Tower_Inquiry_Phase_1_Recommendations_-_March_2021.pdf">research</a> into evacuation strategies in blocks of flats. This follows Moore-Bick’s call for an end to the the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/30/grenfell-inquiry-chair-demands-evacuation-plan-all-high-rises">“stay put” directive</a> which proved so disastrous for the residents of Grenfell Tower. </p>
<h2>Fire safety regulations</h2>
<p>New fire safety laws that have been passed are a welcome development, but they will require investments and expertise in fire services to undertake additional inspections and reviews. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-inquiry-expert-explains-four-main-findings-and-how-emergency-services-must-improve-126163">inquiry</a> criticised the government’s Fire and Rescue Service for not understanding how combustible external cladding was. It highlighted the absence of a regulatory framework to share and store information about fire-safety features. It also warned about the absence of a national evacuation strategy for high-rise buildings. </p>
<p>In response, the government has taken prompt actions. In February it named Peter Baker as the UK’s first chief inspector of buildings, to run a new national regulator of building safety. As specified in the draft <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-building-safety-bill">Building Safety Bill 2020</a>, Baker is tasked, in particular, with appointing an “accountable person” for every high rise in England. Their role will be to listen and respond to residents’ concerns, giving access to vital safety information to residents and leaseholders </p>
<p>Further, the newly enacted Fire Safety Act 2021 improves on previous legislation, by making the owners of high rises and other residential blocks responsible for managing the fire risk of certain key elements. This includes the structure and the external walls of the building, including cladding, balconies and windows, as well as the entrance doors to individual flats that open into communal areas. </p>
<h2>Better training</h2>
<p>The LFB still has a lot of crucial work to do. The inquiry was very critical of the fact that the otherwise experienced incident commanders and senior officers who attended the scene had received no training in the particular dangers associated with combustible cladding. It also criticised the brigade’s evacuation strategies, and lack of contingency plans.</p>
<p>The Mayor of London’s <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/mayor_15th_progress_report_gti_recommendations.pdf">monthly progress reports</a> do show some progress has been made. In particular, policy on how emergency responders are trained to distinguish between callers seeking advice and those needing to be rescued, and on communications between incident commanders and the control room has been revised. </p>
<p>However, the latest independent assessment, carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, expressed concerns that only a handful of the inquiry’s recommendations were actually completed. It highlighted staff shortages causing delays. </p>
<h2>Coordinating emergency responses</h2>
<p>The inquiry found the different emergency responders (the LFB, the Metropolitan Police and the London Ambulance Service) failed to work together in an efficient way. And, so far, very little has changed.</p>
<p>Crucially, each declared a major incident independently, and without informing the others. This meant that the need for a proprly coordinated response was not appreciated in time. </p>
<p>The report stressed the urgent need for clear lines of communication – and compatible tech - between the control rooms of individual services. It detailed how communication between the emergency services on the night of the fire, both remotely and on the incident ground itself, did not meet the standards required by existing fire safety protocols. The communication link with the police helicopter overhead failed to function, which also adversely affected LFB operations.</p>
<p>It noted that a single point of contact in each control room and direct communication between control room supervisors should have been established. A review is currently underway to address these recommendations.</p>
<h2>Much to be done</h2>
<p>In sum, for our buildings to be safer and those of us who live in them to feel more secure, there remains a lot to be done. Removing unsafe cladding and installing fire safety features in older buildings is a <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmcomloc/172/17205.htm">painfully slow process</a>. </p>
<p>Quite who is responsible for paying for this work is an unresolved question too. Leaseholders and residents <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/07/fire-breaks-out-at-london-tower-block-with-grenfell-style-panels">could yet</a> end up footing the bill. Leaseholders of that east London tower that caught fire in May remain liable for £3.1m of the £11.6m cost to fix their building complex. </p>
<p>Critics <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56805145">have slammed</a> the politicians for letting the developers off the hook and passing on the burden of responsibility. Many resident groups have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56924131">called this out</a> as a grave injustice.</p>
<p>Unless the lessons from Grenfell are learned and prompt action is taken, we may fail the Grenfell residents who lost their lives four years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paresh Wankhade is a Trustee at the Fire Service Research and Training Trust . </span></em></p>New regulations, training systems and research are underway but there’s much still to be done.Paresh Wankhade, Professor of Leadership and Management, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1491802020-10-30T13:40:47Z2020-10-30T13:40:47ZGrenfell: it took specialist journals and social media to uncover the real story<p>Numbers relating to the Grenfell Tower disaster of 2017 are always staggering. The 250 firefighters that attended the fire, the 60 hours the tower burned for, and most of all the 72 people who lost their lives. And now as <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/grenfell-tower-inquiry-phase-two-a-recap-of-the-evidence-so-far-65731">phase two of the inquiry</a> progresses, more numbers have emerged. This week we learned of reported £800,000 cost-cutting during the tower’s refurbishment, which swapped zinc cladding for the aluminium composite panels that were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/26/director-at-grenfell-tower-tmo-describes-how-fatal-cladding-saved-800000">responsible for the fire’s rapid spread</a>.</p>
<p>While the inquiry is doing essential work in uncovering the wider context of the disaster, the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire has also made clear the role of specialist journalism in holding councils, governments and companies to account when such tragedies happen.</p>
<p>After the tower caught fire on June 14 2017, the world’s media descended on Grenfell – but mainly to concentrate on reactive pieces and human interest stories. Specialist journals, however, used their knowledge to prove that the problems that caused the Grenfell Tower fire were not confined to that one block – which the <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/journalists-and-grenfell-tower-you-arent-the-guys-getting-the-call-at-2-30am-in-the-morning-when-a-survivor-wants-to-cut-their-wrists/">initial political narrative suggested</a>.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.theknowhowpodcast.com/post/reporting-injustice-episode-3-exposing-the-true-extent-of-the-grenfell-tower-disaster">latest episode</a> of the City University podcast series I have been working on with colleague Lindsey Blumell, Reporting Injustice, we spoke to Sophie Barnes, a journalist who was part of the team working for the journal Inside Housing. She told us that the journal had tried to get the national media interested in the problem of fire safety in social housing long before Grenfell. </p>
<p>First, there was the Lakanal House fire in south London in 2009, where six people died after flames spread rapidly through the tower block <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/lakanal-house-the-verdict-35285">because of exterior cladding</a>. Inside Housing had also broken the story that, following a fire in Shepherd’s Bush in 2016, the London Fire Brigade had written to all London councils warning them <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/a-stark-warning-the-shepherds-bush-tower-block-fire-50566">about dangers to buildings from outside material</a>. But these stories were not followed up by the national media.</p>
<p>“I think if you’re a national newspaper … it was just a case of you got a general news reporter covering one fire, then another general newspaper reporter covering another fire. So, you wouldn’t necessarily join the dots,” recalls Barnes. </p>
<p>“[After Grenfell] we decided quite early on that we were experts in this area compared to other journalists. And so we had to really make the most of that by focusing on the policy failures, because there was a narrative at the top straight after the fire that this was a horrific one-off.”</p>
<p>Barnes sent a freedom of information (FOI) request to all councils in the country asking about their fire risk assessments. She received 436 fire risk assessments in return, and reported the scale of fire safety issues: 268 tower blocks had problems with fire doors, 71 had no emergency lighting, 54 had no ventilation in escape routes. </p>
<p>“Grenfell was obviously a horrific example,” Barnes told us. “But it was a horrific example of a much wider problem.”</p>
<h2>Keeping up the pressure</h2>
<p>But political reaction and solutions to the problems highlighted by Grenfell were slow. To mark the one-year anniversary of Grenfell, Barnes carried out a <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/the-biggest-ever-survey-of-fire-risk-assessments-has-revealed-widespread-safety-problems-56774">further FOI investigation</a>: this time analysing more than 1,500 tower blocks or around 40% of social housing in total across the UK. There were still widespread problems with doors, emergency lighting and signage.</p>
<p>There has been progress since then – helped by pressure from social media as well as specialist journalists. What had caused the fire to spread so rapidly at Grenfell was aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding. It has since emerged that another cladding called high pressure laminate (HPL) was <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/widely-used-hpl-cladding-system-dramatically-fails-official-fire-test-65870">also a fire risk</a>. This has been used in buildings with private tenants as well social housing tenants.</p>
<p>“We’ve got potentially thousands and thousands of buildings with obviously many more residents living in them that are unsafe,” says Susan Bright, professor of land law at Oxford University. “It’s probably much more realistic to still think of well over half a million people were affected by this.”</p>
<p>Because of the complexity of UK property law, sorting out who would pay to remedy this has been difficult. Groups such as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ukcag/">UK Cladding Action</a> and the <a href="https://manchestercladiators.org.uk/">Manchester Cladiator Group</a> have managed to connect with others in the same situation, and raise the issue using Facebook and Twitter. </p>
<p>“The role of social media has been so fundamentally important here because it’s enabled those isolated buildings to come together and have a collective voice, which has been much more powerful,” says Bright.</p>
<p>Pressure from such campaigners saw the government announce a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/818168/Private_sector_ACM_cladding_remediation_fund.pdf">fund for ACM cladding buildings</a> just before the second anniversary of Grenfell, and more recently a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-1-billion-building-safety-fund-to-remove-dangerous-cladding-from-high-rise-buildings">fund for non-ACM buildings</a>. Inside Housing went on to <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/inside-housing-wins-publication-of-the-year-at-specialist-media-awards-58150">win awards</a> for its coverage of Grenfell, but most importantly helped change the belief that this was a tragic but isolated incident. For those who covered the story, however there is still more to do.</p>
<p>“It’s incredibly depressing,” says Barnes, who now works as an investigative reporter at the Daily Telegraph. “I really thought that within a year after Grenfell the cladding would have come off these buildings, because I thought if this isn’t a wake-up call and what is really, you know, 72 lives lost, what, what more do we need?</p>
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<p><em>Sophie Barnes and Susan Bright feature on the latest episode of the <a href="https://www.theknowhowpodcast.com/post/reporting-injustice-episode-3-exposing-the-true-extent-of-the-grenfell-tower-disaster">City University journalism podcast series</a> The Knowhow: Reporting Injustice presented by Dr Lindsey Blumell and Dr Glenda Cooper.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149180/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenda Cooper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How journalists with inside knowledge drove the narrative over building safety after the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.Glenda Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1404322020-06-11T19:55:58Z2020-06-11T19:55:58ZNew NSW building law could be a game changer for apartment safety<p>Three years have passed since a <a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fire-risks-have-been-known-for-years-lives-depend-on-acting-now-with-no-more-delays-111186">cladding-fuelled fire</a> claimed 72 lives in <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-inquiry-expert-explains-four-main-findings-and-how-emergency-services-must-improve-126163">Grenfell Tower</a>, London, on June 14 2017. The construction industry and its regulators around the world are still grappling with how to create effective regulations to ensure dwellings are built to keep their occupants safe.</p>
<p>The New South Wales Parliament passed two important bills last week: the <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bills/Pages/bill-details.aspx?pk=3716">Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2020</a> and the <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bills/Pages/bill-details.aspx?pk=3738">Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Bill 2020</a>. This put in place two important pieces of the “jigsaw puzzle”, as NSW Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/building-watchdog-warns-he-will-clamp-down-on-shameful-developers-20200603-p54yzs.html">put it</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nsw-building-certification-bill-still-lets-developers-off-the-hook-132502">NSW building certification bill still lets developers off the hook</a>
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<p>The Residential Apartment Buildings Bill in particular could be a game changer and is the focus of this article. The law is expected to take effect on September 1 2020.</p>
<h2>New powers to order serious defects be fixed</h2>
<p>The centrepiece of the legislation is an ability for the Secretary of the Department of Customer Service to order the correction of “serious defects” in residential apartment buildings. In practice, the NSW building commissioner and his staff will apply these orders, according to the bill’s <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Hansard/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/'HANSARD-1323879322-110436'">second reading speech</a>. Developers can be ordered to rectify building work “if the secretary has a reasonable belief that building work was or is being carried out in a manner that could result in a serious defect”.</p>
<p>The “was” is significant here. These powers of intervention can be used up to ten years after an occupation certificate is issued. </p>
<p>And, to make sure defects are fixed before residents take possession of their apartment, the secretary can issue a “prohibition order” to delay an occupation certificate.</p>
<p>The definition of “serious defect” includes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>failure to comply with performance requirements of the <a href="https://hia.com.au/business-information/standards-regulations/building-standards">Building Code of Australia</a></p></li>
<li><p>defects likely to deny habitability or use of the building for its intended purpose</p></li>
<li><p>use of banned building products.</p></li>
</ul>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fires-expose-gaps-in-building-material-safety-checks-heres-a-solution-111073">Cladding fires expose gaps in building material safety checks. Here's a solution</a>
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<p>Other states and territories have in place various provisions to order rectification. However, none of these are as extensive as the new regime in NSW.</p>
<p>In particular, the express power to order rectification after apartments are completed addresses the issue that frustrated the Victorian Building Authority’s 2017 attempt to <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2017/805.html">have the builder rectify non-compliant cladding</a> at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lacrosse-fire-ruling-sends-shudders-through-building-industry-consultants-and-governments-112777">Lacrosse Building</a> in Melbourne. So, the rectification powers are likely, along with the statutory duty of care in the Design and Building Practitioners Bill – also a NSW innovation – to attract interest across the country. </p>
<h2>How much will the industry push back?</h2>
<p>These measures to rectify defects go to the heart of the commercial drivers that underpin our largely privately delivered apartment stock in Australia. Without an occupation certificate, developers can’t settle the sale of the apartments (usually off-plan). Likewise, their building contractors will typically remain “on the hook” for a raft of obligations under their contracts.</p>
<p>By making defects correction a precondition for issuing the occupation certificate, the new law embraces the “prevention is better than cure” mantra that underpins reforms in Australia and beyond. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/housing-with-buyer-protection-and-no-serious-faults-is-that-too-much-to-ask-of-builders-and-regulators-113115">Housing with buyer protection and no serious faults – is that too much to ask of builders and regulators?</a>
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<p>To what extent will the industry support this shift? Time will tell. </p>
<p>What can be said is that the reforms add a high level of intervention in the commercial drivers of apartment construction when the industry is already operating under the shadow of COVID-19 and its gathering recession. So it is something of a “wildcard” in an already fraught commercial landscape.</p>
<p>This means developers who do not have adequate measures in place to pass the costs of rectification and delayed occupation down the contractual chain are likely to resort to the extensive appeal measures in the legislation. Likewise, when contractors, subcontractors, consultants and suppliers do “carry the can” for such liability, they will look hard at the relief provisions in their contracts. </p>
<p>The disputes and delays that inevitably result can leave apartment owners and renters in limbo, despite the intent of the legislation to protect them.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-the-building-cracks-or-cladding-sometimes-uncertainty-does-even-more-harm-120662">It's not just the building cracks or cladding – sometimes uncertainty does even more harm</a>
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<h2>Regulators need adequate resources</h2>
<p>Another crucial “time will tell” aspect is whether the regulator will have enough resources to inspect buildings – and issue prohibition and rectification orders when needed – in a timely manner across the industry.</p>
<p>The legislation largely leaves it to the Department of Customer Service to appoint “authorised officers”. The minister has indicated these officers will be the building commissioner and his staff. </p>
<p>The commissioner was <a href="https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/rating-tools/brush-off-your-old-cv-the-nsw-building-commission-is-now-hiring/">reported in February</a> to be recruiting up to 60 construction professionals as “auditors” for a scheme that looks similar to what is now enshrined in legislation. They will need to move rapidly to have it ready for the extensive interventions that the legislation anticipates.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lack-of-information-on-apartment-defects-leaves-whole-market-on-shaky-footings-127007">Lack of information on apartment defects leaves whole market on shaky footings</a>
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<h2>A game changer?</h2>
<p>Ever since the Grenfell tragedy, politicians around the world have at least paid lip service to the aspiration that “occupants of buildings deserve to feel safe and secure within their walls”. In saying this to the NSW parliament last week, Anderson was able credibly to put forward the Residential Apartment Buildings Bill as a vital piece in the regulatory “puzzle” to achieve that goal.</p>
<p>The issues discussed here are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg as the industry absorbs the implications of the new law (and its forthcoming detail by way of regulations). But recent activity by NSW lawmakers suggests there is at last strong impetus to achieve meaningful and comprehensive reform.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Orders to fix serious defects, even up to ten years after completion, and to delay the occupation certificate developers need to sell apartments until they’re fixed, gives regulators real teeth.Matthew Bell, Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of Studies for Construction Law, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1302652020-02-10T11:42:22Z2020-02-10T11:42:22ZSocial housing tenants need their voices heard – here’s how to make it happen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313098/original/file-20200131-41490-3ubr79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C11%2C7304%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-on-discussion-people-communicating-while-439213456">Shutterstock/G-Stock Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289">Grenfell fire tragedy</a> in London in 2017, many commentators noted that concerns and warnings from tenants and residents appeared to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-42072477">have been ignored</a>. The ability to influence the activities and decisions of landlords is vital to prevent the voices of people living in social housing from becoming marginalised. </p>
<p>This influencing role has historically been known as <a href="https://housingevidence.ac.uk/publications/understanding-the-approaches-to-tenant-participation-in-social-housing/">“tenant participation”</a>. After a decade in the policy wilderness, this has re-emerged as an important concern for the government, with “resident engagement” in social housing featuring prominently in a recent consultation document on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-housing-green-paper-a-new-deal-for-social-housing">social housing</a>. </p>
<p>We have recently carried out exploratory <a href="https://housingevidence.ac.uk/publications/understanding-social-housing-landlords-approaches-to-tenant-participation/">research</a> into landlords’ approaches to tenant participation as part of our work for the <a href="https://housingevidence.ac.uk/">UK Centre for Collaborative Housing Evidence</a>. The study showed that landlords believe involving tenants is important. In fact, some described it as “critical”.</p>
<p>Tenants can be involved in the management of their housing in a number of ways, including assessing the performance of their landlords, helping to determine how resources are allocated, and helping to shape refurbishment programmes. Current regulatory frameworks across the UK do require social housing landlords to involve tenants in some way, and this is particularly emphasised <a href="https://www.housingregulator.gov.scot/">in Scotland</a>. However, it seems likely the government will introduce further measures to promote tenant participation.</p>
<h2>The right thing to do</h2>
<p>For many landlords, involving tenants was simply the “right thing to do”. But they, along with others interviewed as part of our research (including tenant representatives), also noted that this involvement potentially resulted in a number of benefits to both landlords and tenants. </p>
<p>These included an improved housing service, greater satisfaction from tenants and a more effective allocation of resources. Involving tenants could also result in cost savings for landlords and better decision-making.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313271/original/file-20200203-41503-1n7qjwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313271/original/file-20200203-41503-1n7qjwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313271/original/file-20200203-41503-1n7qjwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313271/original/file-20200203-41503-1n7qjwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313271/original/file-20200203-41503-1n7qjwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313271/original/file-20200203-41503-1n7qjwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313271/original/file-20200203-41503-1n7qjwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tenant participation can foster social cohesion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-block-flats-urban-apartments-716515996">Shutterstock/Patrycja Gawlas</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>For tenants, participating in decisions potentially gave them a voice and agency. It could also result in them becoming more confident and developing skills that made them better placed to find employment. It encouraged social interaction within neighbourhoods, helping make vulnerable households less isolated and fostering social cohesion. </p>
<h2>Obstacles to participation</h2>
<p>Our research found that there were a number of factors that held tenants back from meaningful involvement in the decisions about their housing. The most important of these was the apparent reluctance of many landlords to cede power to their tenants. </p>
<p>There are many examples of where this has happened. These include tenants sitting on the boards of housing associations, tenant management organisations, community-controlled housing associations, which are relatively common <a href="https://housingevidence.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/R2018_SHPWG_Scotland.pdf">in Scotland</a>, and participatory budgeting, which involves tenants being involved in deciding how a (small) part of their landlords’ budget is spent. </p>
<p>But in England especially, tenants’ powers were relatively limited when they were not involved in the governance of social housing. They generally had comparatively little influence over strategic decision-making and shaping how the housing service looked.</p>
<p>In Wales, research participants felt the same was true there, although to a lesser extent. But they believed that the situation was improving as a result of the regulatory framework for <a href="https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-02/the-regulatory-framework-for-housing-associations-registered-in-wales.pdf">housing associations in Wales</a> and the work of the devolved government and partner agencies. </p>
<p>Landlords identified a number of challenges associated with developing tenant participation. One was the issue of how to embed it within the organisation so that it was the responsibility of all staff and not just a dedicated tenant participation team, which was the most common approach to delivering tenant involvement. </p>
<p>Another challenge was growing participation so that the tenants who are involved are more representative of the broader tenant base. Historically, ethnic minorities, young people and families with young children where both parents were working <a href="http://www.iut.nu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Resident-Involvement-in-Social-Housing-in-the-UK-and-Europe.pdf">have been under-represented</a>.</p>
<h2>Working effectively</h2>
<p>Our research also identified some key principles for involving tenants. First, they should take part in determining how they can get involved so that it matches their needs. One way that this can be done is through revisiting the idea of a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-framework-for-tenant-participation-compacts">“tenant participation compact”</a>. This is an agreement drawn up by landlords and tenants that outlines the scope, remit and form of tenant participation.</p>
<p>Ideally, a range of participation options should be employed so that tenants can choose how they are involved, including newer, less time-intensive digital options such as online surveys and using social media. </p>
<p>This will make it more likely that tenants will be able to identify ways of engaging that address their circumstances and needs and, in particular, the level of commitment that they are prepared to devote to engaging. This should mean that more will become involved and lead to a greater range of voices being heard.</p>
<p>If tenants want to participate then it is important that they are able to influence the decision-making process in a meaningful way, with their involvement not being tokenistic. It is also vital that tenants can see the impact of their involvement. If they can, they will be more likely to engage in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Hickman receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant no. ES/P008852/1), Arts and Humanities Research Council and Joseph Rowntree Foundation as part of the work of UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Preece receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council and Joseph Rowntree Foundation as part of the work of UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE)</span></em></p>Even landlords think involving social housing tenants is critical to running properties, but too often it doesn’t happen.Paul Hickman, Professor of Housing and Social Policy, Sheffield Hallam UniversityJenny Preece, Research Associate, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1262492019-11-06T12:36:02Z2019-11-06T12:36:02ZMaking life-or-death decisions is very hard – here’s how we’ve taught people to do it better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300334/original/file-20191105-88372-q0u0de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C1751%2C1166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When faced with a wildfire, responders must act quickly and decisively to save lives.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/California-Wildfires-Blackout/aca553473f4a4e43a0b14c9dd8fa7711/9/0">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When faced with a rapidly advancing fire threatening a community, it can be hard to know how best to save lives. </p>
<p>Is a rapid evacuation better, or is it safer for residents to stay where they are? The whole situation can change in an instant, and delays and indecision can be fatal. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article236722528.html">wildfires spread across California</a>, a report about a massive fire in London in 2017 can offer useful lessons for emergency managers and residents.</p>
<h2>Inside the Grenfell Tower fire</h2>
<p>On June 14, 2017, a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/grenfell-tower-report-section-section-1000-pages-damning-criticism/#">refrigerator in a London apartment had an electrical malfunction</a> that started a fire. For the first two hours after the fire was reported, officials <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/grenfell-tower-report-section-section-1000-pages-damning-criticism/#">told the apartment building’s residents not to evacuate</a>. Rather, they recommended people stay in their apartments and trust the building’s design to contain the fire to the unit where it started.</p>
<p>The city’s fire officials were faced with two types of potential tragedy: people dying in their apartments or getting injured or killed trying to evacuate. </p>
<p>In hindsight, they <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/grenfell-tower-report-section-section-1000-pages-damning-criticism/">took too long</a> to realize the fire was out of control, and to change their instructions, telling people to get out. Less than four hours after it started, the fire had engulfed the 24-story Grenfell Tower, home to just under 300 people, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/grenfell-tower-report-section-section-1000-pages-damning-criticism/">of whom 72 died</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/28/fires-rage-california-refines-an-important-skill-evacuating/">similar problem has arisen in California wildfires</a> – including in 2018, when <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-paradise-fire-evacuations-20181114-story.html">delays in the order to evacuate the town of Paradise, California</a>, led to the deaths of 56 people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300335/original/file-20191105-88414-yaq02k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rapidly growing fire at the Grenfell Tower in London challenged city officials’ decision-making skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grenfell_Tower_fire_(wider_view).jpg">Natalie Oxford/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Choosing the ‘least worst’ option</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1J07riAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">scholars</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=N2wxtlUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">who</a> study human decision-making in potentially fatal circumstances, we’ve learned that many people, even trained military personnel and emergency responders, find it hard to make decisions in extreme situations, such as large fires. </p>
<p>The resulting delay, which we’ve called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2019.1589572">redundant deliberation</a>,” happens when people take too long to make a choice between difficult options.</p>
<p>We’ve found indecision is the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bdm.723">most dangerous aspect</a> of a high-stakes situation. We have also proposed theories about the origins of this delay, and how it can be overcome, in our recent book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conflict-9780190623449?cc=us&lang=en&">Conflict: How Soldiers Make Impossible Decisions</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-03597-001">Our research</a> has found that redundant deliberation is more likely to occur when there is no standard policy to guide decision-makers, or, as in the Grenfell fire, when the normal practice doesn’t fit the actual circumstances.</p>
<p>Many apartment buildings’ fire plans involve telling residents to stay put, because fireproof walls, floors and ceilings are designed to contain flames to the apartment where they started. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/grenfell-tower-report-section-section-1000-pages-damning-criticism/">That was the plan</a> at the Grenfell Tower. London fire officials stuck to that advice even as the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/grenfell-tower-report-section-section-1000-pages-damning-criticism/">fire spread into dozens of neighboring apartments</a>.</p>
<p>Their error was in relying too much on fixed rules and written policies, rather than understanding how best to protect human life in a rapidly changing fire that defied the expectations those policies relied on. The London fire chiefs’ years of accumulated firefighting experience had not prepared them to handle what happened at the Grenfell Tower. It was simply too rare an event, with much more at stake than in other fires.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300341/original/file-20191105-88403-1h2828v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300341/original/file-20191105-88403-1h2828v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300341/original/file-20191105-88403-1h2828v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300341/original/file-20191105-88403-1h2828v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300341/original/file-20191105-88403-1h2828v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300341/original/file-20191105-88403-1h2828v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300341/original/file-20191105-88403-1h2828v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When soldiers can talk through scenarios, they get better at dealing with unexpected challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.army.mil/article/211802/multinational_disaster_response_exercise_wraps_up_in_nepal">Sgt. 1st Class Corey Ray</a></span>
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<h2>Telling grim stories</h2>
<p>Our research has developed a better way to train people to act decisively in urgent situations. Instead of being slowed into indecision by rules and experience, quick-thinking leaders need to be creative, adaptive and imaginative. </p>
<p>We have developed a way to teach people to transcend their past training through a method of guided imagination we call “grim storytelling.” It’s based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2015.07.001">scenario-centered discussions</a> in which the participants create situations (often from their own experiences) for their colleagues to work through, in the military and aviation communities.</p>
<p>In sessions we conducted, we had three groups of four people. Each group developed a scenario that was based on a real situation they had dealt with in the past, but far more complicated and challenging. Each group then presented the others with the scenario and asked them to choose a course of action from several options, all of which looked quite bad. </p>
<p>For example, one group presented a scenario of lone shooters attacking civilians around the city. The event became a hostage situation at a local hospital, then got more complicated when a group of armed civilians arrived, saying they would “storm the hospital” if local police weren’t going to.</p>
<p>The most helpful grim stories are those where the group members coming up with the scenario disagree about what option they would choose, or where circumstances require decision-makers to question the standard existing policy or practice. </p>
<p>Some grim stories even have built-in ambushes, like the hospital standoff, where the scenario looks to be unfolding in one way but something happens to change it completely, and responders must deal with the new event. </p>
<p>We’ve found that as military and law enforcement personnel work through these hypothetical situations, they learn a lot about their own values and those of others. They find opportunities to test different policies and flexible problem-solving approaches. Our method is inexpensive and efficient, too, because people can talk about situations without having to physically create or re-enact them. Even when, as happened with the hospital standoff, participants find themselves unable to decide in time, they can gain a real appreciation for how hard some decisions can be and how easy it can be to fall victim to redundant deliberation.</p>
<p>Grim storytelling is also incredibly flexible. In our training with law enforcement and other agencies, we have conducted grim storytelling exercises that last several hours and involve multiple phases, actors, roles and decision makers. But we have also conducted grim storytelling in short bursts, stripped down to simpler, yet no less horrible, decisions. </p>
<p>Whichever method is used, grim storytelling – a skill informed by storytelling and even <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060391683/story/">creative writing</a> – forces people to think in new and unfamiliar ways that can improve their decision-making in real situations that unfold unexpectedly. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Shortland receives funding from the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI), Foundational Science Research Unit, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurence Alison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Emergency responders and military personnel need to think creatively – even imaginatively – to save lives under pressure. Analyzing the Grenfell Tower Fire in London reveals useful lessons.Laurence Alison, Director of the Centre for Critical and Major Incident Psychology, University of LiverpoolNeil Shortland, Director, Center for Terrorism and Security Studies; Assistant Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1261642019-10-31T17:25:03Z2019-10-31T17:25:03ZGrenfell Tower: after decades of inaction, politicians still haven’t been held to account<p>Let’s start with a simple fact: the fire at Grenfell Tower was predictable and preventable. And it could still happen somewhere else today. It happened because local, city and national governments failed to intervene on fire safety the last time they were called on to do so. </p>
<p>At the conclusion of the <a href="https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/elections-and-council/lakanal-house-coroner-inquest">2013 inquest</a> into the 2009 Lakanal House fire, which killed six people, ministers and public officials were given firm recommendations by the coroner. At the core of these was the advice that the “stay put” policy – which advises residents of tower blocks to stay in their homes, to compartmentalise the fire – be reviewed. </p>
<p>A failure to rectify big holes in the fire safety regime for public housing made a fire like the one at Grenfell Tower almost inevitable – even after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-lakanal-house-were-not-heeded-then-grenfell-happened-80051">hard lessons learned</a> in the wake of Lakanal. One of my abiding memories as a special correspondent for the BBC covering the Lakanal House inquest, was when a witness said: “I can’t imagine what would have happened if this fire had broken out at night”. Now we know.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-lakanal-house-were-not-heeded-then-grenfell-happened-80051">Lessons from Lakanal House were not heeded – then Grenfell happened</a>
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<h2>Blame game</h2>
<p>There is a sense in which the plight of residents – so much in the news in the wake of Grenfell – was poorly served by the media in the years after Lakanal. Little public scrutiny, for example, of whether the recommendations of the Lakanal inquest had been implemented, and little outrage at politicians passing the buck when changes were clearly necessary. When disaster befell Grenfell, journalistic overdrive could not bring back those lost lives. Journalists had missed the boat. </p>
<p>Emily Bell, formerly of The Guardian, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2017/jun/25/grenfell-reflects-the-accountability-vacuum-left-by-crumbling-local-press">said it was a sign</a> of the demise of a robust local press. There is something to be said for that argument. No investigative instincts were needed to pick up on the fire safety risks that the Grenfell Action Group <a href="https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/grenfell-tower-fire/">repeatedly raised</a> on their public website – journalists just needed to convince an editor it was a story worth telling. </p>
<p>I’m afraid the evidence shows that between 2013 and 2017, journalism failed to hold those responsible for fire safety to account – with the exception of specialist journal <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/">Inside Housing</a>, which made this a key topic of interest. </p>
<p>For the media to now <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/grenfell-tower-report-fire-brigade-condemned-systemic-failures/">condemn the London Fire Brigade</a> for the problems at Grenfell Tower risks deflecting responsibility from those most culpable: the ministers, government advisers and civil servants who sat on their hands and ignored the findings from the Lakanal inquest. Of course, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) made mistakes at Grenfell Tower, as they did at Lakanal House. Phase one of the Grenfell Tower public inquiry <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-inquiry-expert-explains-four-main-findings-and-how-emergency-services-must-improve-126163">highlighted serious failings</a> in their handling of the unfolding emergency. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-inquiry-expert-explains-four-main-findings-and-how-emergency-services-must-improve-126163">Grenfell Tower inquiry: expert explains four main findings – and how emergency services must improve</a>
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<p>But the LFB was not responsible for the maintenance of the building – nor its design. In fact, it was a complex web involving the the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, arms-length management companies, contractors, designers and manufacturers that oversaw the conditions that led to the fire. Phase two of the public inquiry <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/about">will seek to untangle these circumstances</a>, and begins taking evidence in early 2020.</p>
<h2>Making homes safe</h2>
<p>There are key practical take-aways from the public inquiry thus far. One of the firmest (and in many people’s views, most obvious) recommendations of Justice Moore-Bick’s phase one report from the ongoing inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire is that the “stay put” policy no longer serves the public interest. But if landlords are to follow through on removing and replacing the “stay put” policy, there will need to be effective evacuation plans in place for residents of every single tower block across the UK. </p>
<p>Furthermore, if “stay put” is no longer common sense, building regulations need to reflect that. There must no longer be a presumption that flats are contained units, which can block a fire from spreading. Instead, there must be an assumption that fire can, and will, spread. Safe evacuations will require sturdy fire doors, sheltered exit routes and functioning sprinkler systems – even retro-fitted ones. </p>
<p>There will be reluctance from those who will have to pay the bill – namely local authority landlords, private freeholders and leaseholders. But there is no alternative to secure people’s safety and well-being. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/26/mental-health-toll-on-people-in-flats-with-grenfell-style-cladding-revealed">mental health costs</a> to those living in fear of what could happen to them and their families hasn’t yet been fully accounted for.</p>
<h2>Regulations save lives</h2>
<p>But as I argue in my <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030337117">forthcoming book chapter</a>, there is also a vital role for journalism in tackling the fallout from events like Grenfell. Not only must it respond to disaster and tell those stories truthfully – it must also deal with the consequences of those events, and propel forward crucial debates, such as how disaster-afflicted communities can be rebuilt, and how trust in public authorities might be restored if they are found at fault. </p>
<p>It must also pursue those in power to deliver the required changes to stop such disasters happening again. Journalism failed in the wake of the Lakanal inquest. Journalists may not make the decisions in the corridors of power, but they can keep challenging such decisions if they do not serve the public interest. Let us hope that out of Grenfell comes an enduring lesson for British journalism. Readers do expect public interest journalism: they want journalists to speak truth to power – and there’s no further scope for journalists to forfeit that trust by taking their eyes off the proverbial ball.</p>
<p>“Regulation” has become <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-grenfell-regulation-must-not-be-a-dirty-word-80031">a dirty word</a> in the current political climate – that cannot continue, regardless of the prevailing ideology of the UK government. Going forward, public authorities need to establish fail safe ways to ensure landlords of tower blocks are held unequivocally accountable for meeting regulations and safety standards.</p>
<p>The current law defining fire safety responsibilities – the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/contents/made">Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005</a> – makes it too easy for landlords to shirk their duties. That was the basis of the tragedy at Lakanal House, and the national disgrace at Grenfell Tower, because the problem was exposed and then ignored for the four years between the two fires. </p>
<p>Grenfell Tower still stands as a monument to corporate and government incompetence, which caused the unnecessary deaths of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40457212">72 people</a>. Clearly, fire services around the country have a role to play here. But again, journalists must take stock of relevant context in their reports: the UK government has been enforcing an austerity programme that has led to local authorities cutting public resources for firefighting. And emergency services are not solely responsible for ensuring that freeholders maintain their buildings properly.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/">Grenfell Action Group</a> discovered in the months before the tragedy, even with a public website disseminating damaging information about seriously lax fire safety, getting those in authority to listen is a struggle. It can still be difficult for residents to challenge landlords who maintain that their cladding is not a fire risk, since the government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-sector-acm-cladding-remediation-fund-application-guidance">will currently only fund</a> the removal of aluminium composite material cladding. Comparing cladding is not as straightforward as contrasting bricks and wood. Tenants need somewhere to go to get informed, impartial advice.</p>
<p>While talk continues about what needs to be done, there has still never been a thorough national audit of the safety of tower blocks across the country – despite persistent efforts from self-financed groups like <a href="https://www.towerblocksuk.com/">Tower Blocks UK</a>, and an earlier <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/17/grenfell-tower-local-councils-inspections-tower-blocks">piecemeal review</a> to look at emergency fire safety arrangements by auditing information held by local authorities and housing associations.</p>
<p>Having a national register of tower blocks, including details of construction and materials, is not beyond the capabilities of modern government. This has to be a logical starting point to gather information on their current condition and safety risks – before tragedy strikes once again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kurt Barling would like to thank fire safety and public housing campaigners Sam Webb, Tony Bird, Liz Low and Frances Clarke of Tower Blocks UK and Hannah Brack for their valuable insights in preparing this article.</span></em></p>The public inquiry into Grenfell makes its first report – but those responsible for the circumstances leading up to the fire are yet to face the consequences.Kurt Barling, Professor of Journalism, Middlesex UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1261632019-10-31T14:32:11Z2019-10-31T14:32:11ZGrenfell Tower inquiry: expert explains four main findings – and how emergency services must improve<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299668/original/file-20191031-187912-1wdyshh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7348%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focus on the fire service. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/fire-rescue-sign-on-side-british-1408043792?src=NbBCk_n_EM58_DXtFXy_iQ-1-91">John Gomez/Shutterstock. </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The long-awaited <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/phase-1-report">phase one report</a> of the public inquiry led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick into the fire at the Grenfell Tower has been published. This report examines the events of an extremely complicated situation on the night of June 14, 2017, which resulted into the tragic loss of 72 lives. It investigates the cause of the fire, how it developed and the steps taken by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) and other emergency services.</p>
<p>Understandably, the response to the findings – which <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50216606">underscore failures</a> by emergency services – has been immediate and intense, with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50230188">survivors calling</a> for the resignation of London Fire Brigade chief Dany Cotton. Yet the report runs over 830 pages, and it will take time to examine and understand the findings in detail. For now, I’ve drawn on my expertise in the management of emergency services to summarise the report’s <a href="https://assets.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/GTI%20-%20Phase%201%20report%20Executive%20Summary.pdf">key findings and recommendations</a>. </p>
<p><strong>1. Require owners and managers to share information about building design and materials.</strong> </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299672/original/file-20191031-26419-1autn0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299672/original/file-20191031-26419-1autn0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299672/original/file-20191031-26419-1autn0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299672/original/file-20191031-26419-1autn0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299672/original/file-20191031-26419-1autn0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1199&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299672/original/file-20191031-26419-1autn0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1199&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299672/original/file-20191031-26419-1autn0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1199&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Similar cladding was found on Chalcots Estate in Camden, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcots_Estate#/media/File:London_MMB_89_Adelaide_Road.jpg">mattbuck/Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the report was critical of the fact that LFB was unaware of the combustible nature of the materials used in the external cladding that surrounded Grenfell Tower, it concluded that the cladding was largely responsible for the fire spreading so quickly. </p>
<p>The report recommends that owners and managers of every high rise residential building (over 18 metres in height) should provide their local fire and rescue service with information about the design of its external walls and details of the materials of which they are constructed. This is a significant recommendation, which should help local fire services to recognise the nature of each fire they face, and make contingency plans to deal with specific types of fires.</p>
<p><strong>2. Develop national guidelines for the evacuation of high rise towers.</strong></p>
<p>Moore-Bick praised the firefighters who attended the tower for their extraordinary courage and selfless devotion to duty, but concluded that the absence of an operational evacuation plan was a “major omission” in the LFB’s preparation for a fire at a building such as Grenfell Tower. </p>
<p>The report argued in length whether the “stay put” policy – whereby tower block residents were advised to stay inside their flats, to compartmentalise the fire – could have been reviewed by the brigade earlier in the night, so that more lives could be saved. This is undoubtedly one of the most emotive and controversial issues brought up by the report. </p>
<p>The report also called for a legal requirement on owners and managers of every high rise residential building to draw up evacuation plans and need for contingency planning, including speakers and siren systems, to alert residents to understand the evacuation drill when needed. This may prove more difficult to implement, especially in tower blocks with single staircases. Fears for the safety of elderly people and young children in such scenarios may require the government to bring in new laws to specify planning requirements for the number of stairs and lifts.</p>
<p><strong>3. Improve the response, training and communication within the fire service.</strong></p>
<p>The report was critical about the response of LFB, both on the ground and in the control room where 999 calls were handled – especially regarding how information from callers was processed and shared with ground commanders. The inquiry found that senior control room staff lacked the training to manage a large-scale incident, while operational commanders lacked the training to recognise the need for an evacuation – or organise one. </p>
<p>The report concluded with recommendations to improve call handling and staff training, and develop better communication channels between staff on the ground and and in the control room to facilitate direct communication. It also recommended providing an integrated system of recording fire safety guidance information.</p>
<p><strong>4. Strengthening cooperation between police, fire and ambulance services.</strong> </p>
<p>The report also identified lack of coordination between the three emergency services (the LFB, police and ambulance), particularly in the “area of communication between control rooms” and in relation to the “advice to be given to callers” trapped in the tower. </p>
<p>Their failure to share declarations of a <a href="https://www.ukfrs.com/guidance/major-incidents">major incident</a> – which calls for extra levels of command, control and coordination between emergency services – went against protocols and hampered a joint response between police, fire and ambulance services. </p>
<h2>What lies ahead</h2>
<p>The report identified massive communication and command challenges for the LFB – and makes a compelling case for organisational learning across the emergency services. My own research has also identified <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030213282">governance challenges</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-reboot-britains-fractured-emergency-services-79528">a lack of coordination</a> between emergency services – as did the <a href="https://www.kerslakearenareview.co.uk/media/1022/kerslake_arena_review_printed_final.pdf">Kerslake Report</a> on the Manchester Arena tragedy of May 2017. So clearly, these are persistent problems. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-reboot-britains-fractured-emergency-services-79528">How to reboot Britain's fractured emergency services</a>
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<p>Giving staff proper training, re-assessing the way decisions are made and undertaking rigorous risk assessments – as recommended by the inquiry – will go a long way to reassure the public about fire safety in high rise buildings, and the conduct of emergency services. But it will require additional investments in the services, which are already grappling with spending cuts. </p>
<p>Fire services alone have witnessed a <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Financial-sustainability-of-fire-and-rescue-services-amended.pdf">12% spending reduction</a> in real terms between 2010 and 2015.<br>
Doing “more with less” is also <a href="https://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/comment/2018/11/12/winter-pressures-and-the-nhs-ambulance-services-doing-more-with-less-is-not-an-option/">proving difficult</a> for ambulance services.
And central government funding to police and crime commissioners has been <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Financial-sustainability-of-police-forces.pdf">reduced by £2.3 billion</a> (25%) in real-terms between 2010-11 and 2015-16.</p>
<p>Phase one of the report has been revealing, but the public will be in a better position to exercise judgement after phase two of the inquiry has run its course, and identified the aspects of the “design, construction and management of the building that were primarily responsible for the disaster”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paresh Wankhade is affiliated with
Trustee- Fire Service Research and Training Trust
Fellow, Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management</span></em></p>It will take time to digest the details of the 830-plus page report from phase one of the inquiry, but there are clear improvements to be made.Paresh Wankhade, Professor of Leadership and Management, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1259332019-10-30T05:11:48Z2019-10-30T05:11:48ZWe made a flammable cladding database to help boost fire safety in our buildings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299390/original/file-20191030-154694-vj28xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C56%2C5327%2C3540&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The materials used for cladding buildings can greatly affect a building's overall vulnerability to fire. In Australia, buildings with flammable cladding continue to pose safety concerns. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SHUTTERSTOCK</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Modern buildings have seen rapid development in recent decades, with a push towards sustainable practices and improved energy efficiency. But the advancement of fire safety has been less prioritised, and we need to rethink our approach.</p>
<p>Combustible cladding materials, which are often found in buildings, pose safety concerns. The systems originally in place to help solve this problem weren’t good enough. That’s why my colleagues and I created the <a href="https://claddingmaterialslibrary.com.au">Cladding Materials Library</a>, an online database which provides insight into the flammability of various cladding materials.</p>
<p>Cladding materials used in modern <a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Rainscreen">rainscreen systems</a> on the outside of buildings offer insulation and protect buildings against rain, wind and sun. They also let architects create interesting building designs, such as by adding bright colours or curves to the exterior.</p>
<p>But flammability in modern cladding materials, <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/building-confidence-building-ministers-forum-expert-assessment">among other failings</a>, has led to increasingly frequent fires breaking out across the world. Examples include the 2014 <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-28/lacrosse-apartment-owners-win-5.7-million-cladding-fire-damages/10857060">Lacrosse fire</a> in Melbourne and the 2017 <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/london-fire-brigade-criticised-for-grenfell-tower-apartment-fire-20191030-p535jy.html">Grenfell Tower fire</a> in London.</p>
<h2>The extent of the problem</h2>
<p>Many cladding materials currently used are flammable to varying degrees, including very common Aluminium Composite Panels (ACPs). These have a plastic-based core material (such as polyethylene), with a sheet of aluminium glued to either side. While ACPs can sometimes be nearly non-combustible, they’re generally considered flammable.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/flammable-cladding-costs-could-approach-billions-for-building-owners-if-authorities-dither-118121">Flammable cladding costs could approach billions for building owners if authorities dither</a>
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<p>In Queensland, about <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/18-000-queensland-buildings-registered-to-check-for-flammable-cladding-20190328-p518om.html">18,000 buildings</a> have been looked at to determine cladding flammability and overall building response to fire. Of these, 75% required no further action. For the remaining 25%, engineers were hired to further investigate whether they were problematic or not.</p>
<p>The Queensland government estimated 100-200 of the buildings needed to be made safer, with the price of work on a single building costing up to <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/flammable-cladding-confirmed-on-five-queensland-government-buildings-20180926-p5060z.html">tens of millions of dollars</a>.</p>
<p>It’s important to note some buildings with combustible cladding otherwise had rigorous fire safety designs, such as networks of well-maintained fire doors, short escape distances, good firefighter access, and layouts that minimise risk. Thus, having flammable cladding does not necessarily mean a building is dangerous. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, such materials <a href="https://theconversation.com/lacrosse-fire-ruling-sends-shudders-through-building-industry-consultants-and-governments-112777">shouldn’t have been included</a> without architects, engineers and builders properly understanding the associated risks.</p>
<h2>To help, we developed a database</h2>
<p>The database my colleagues and I created, the first of its kind, offers a detailed collection of flammability information and material properties for different types of common cladding materials.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fires-expose-gaps-in-building-material-safety-checks-heres-a-solution-111073">Cladding fires expose gaps in building material safety checks. Here's a solution</a>
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<p>Generally, the same materials are used repeatedly across buildings, as there are only so many products available on the market. We used small-scale testing (10cm samples) to identify exactly which materials were the most important. </p>
<p>But identifying a material is not enough to understand how it performs in a fire. That’s why we completed flammability testing (of samples up to 1m in length) on 20 materials commonly found on the outside of buildings.</p>
<p>Over the course of a year, we took 1,100 small material samples from buildings and performed 9,250 tests. We then identified 75 unique cladding materials, and narrowed these down to 20 materials, on which we performed detailed testing (with about 30 tests per material). We chose a wide range of materials to ensure the most common ones were represented in our selection. </p>
<p>The experiments we did involved exposing the materials to heat in controlled ways, and then changing the amount of heat to see how the samples responded. Our process included measuring the time taken for a material to ignite, the amount of heat released from the material, how the heat was released, and how the flames spread. </p>
<p>Our results are now publicly available in the Cladding Materials Library, which can be updated as new materials are invented. The database will help fire engineers effectively assess the potential fire risk of buildings.</p>
<h2>Writing accurate reports is crucial</h2>
<p>Fire engineers can use our database to determine how a building as a whole might perform during a fire. They may then ask questions such as: </p>
<ul>
<li>how quickly will the fire spread up the building? </li>
<li>can people reach a place of safety in time? </li>
<li>is there flammable material near important escape routes? </li>
<li>if the fire spreads upwards, how will the rest of the building perform?</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lacrosse-fire-ruling-sends-shudders-through-building-industry-consultants-and-governments-112777">Lacrosse fire ruling sends shudders through building industry consultants and governments</a>
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<p>But fire engineers involved in such investigations also need ongoing training to update their knowledge. For many, this came in the form of a continued professional development course designed by the University of Queensland, and a similar course for building professionals (such as builders and architects) developed by the Queensland government. </p>
<p>The latter has been important to the success of our project, as it allows building professionals to understand the problems at hand, and the reports written by engineers.</p>
<h2>Safety in the future</h2>
<p>For now, fire engineers hired by either the government or by building owners are making immediate changes to the relevant buildings to boost their short-term safety. Eventually, they will make suggestions for how to improve long-term building safety, which may cost more time and money. </p>
<p>The only way to solve the issue of fire risk is to understand how each building performs, and to have a suitably qualified engineer take responsibility for its design. </p>
<p>Our research will represent a change in how we approach solving this problem, and will hopefully help prevent fires in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martyn S. McLaggan and The University of Queensland has received funding from the Queensland Government - Department of Housing & Public Works. The work has also received support from the Non-Conforming Building Products Audit Taskforce, which includes the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and Queensland Building and Construction Commission. Some of the materials contributed to the database were donated by manufacturers who had no influence or say in the results. The continuing professional development course for engineers was designed by The University of Queensland, and UQ receives money when participants attend the course.</span></em></p>Ensuring a building will be safe against fire requires careful consideration from not only fire engineers, but also from builders, architects and building owners.Martyn S. McLaggan, Research Fellow, School of Civil Engineering, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1167802019-06-10T11:33:47Z2019-06-10T11:33:47ZGrenfell Tower: catastrophic fires shape cities for centuries – this one is no exception<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278633/original/file-20190610-52753-124qate.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C3317%2C2183&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Grenfell Tower, one year after the fire. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Close-up_of_Grenfell_Tower_with_banners_in_June_2018.jpg">Carcharoth/Wikimedia Commons.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been two years since a disastrous fire broke out at Grenfell Tower, a residential block of flats in North Kensington, London, on June 14, 2017. The fire is believed to have started on the fourth floor, “<a href="https://assets.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/documents/Rydon%20Maintenance%20Limited%20opening%20statement.pdf">in and around</a>” a fridge freezer. It escaped through a kitchen window, travelled rapidly upwards through the cladding – which had been fitted during recent regeneration efforts – and ultimately claimed the lives of 72 people. </p>
<p>The report from <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/news/update-inquiry-14">the first phase</a> of the public inquiry into the fire has been delayed and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47478091">no criminal charges</a> will be considered until 2021 at the earliest. Yet <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/grenfell-families-are-still-living-in-hotels-nearly-2-years-after-the-fire_uk_5cacf3c3e4b0e833aa3224df?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJAxolWBT3RJTSH7E19E9U2yQ9nPXMRkbHsQMTgx5hT1ASMaNOABUyKZ1R5kpFro9v5izDYJujUKY44WEFjQVZzgjE-AXxnnQ93K1O8silsgxPKB7cS6EST7qlCDKXuJKQCFCak-Gv3qXSOGbCwll27uqgGxu_WS5dcNrDX2Z7TF">a number of households</a> affected by the fire are still in temporary accommodation and the tower remains standing, as a reminder of this disaster. The Grenfell Tower fire not only survives in the nation’s collective memory – it will, like so many previous catastrophes – continue to alter the shape of British cities for years to come. </p>
<h2>Evolving through history</h2>
<p>Buildings and the urban landscape evolve in response to past accidents and future threats. For example, long ago, devastating fires led to the establishment of organised fire services. The earliest historical record of organised fire fighting dates back to the Roman times. It was first the <a href="http://www.ancientpages.com/2016/02/16/ancient-inventions-firefighting-vehicles/">Familia Publica</a> – a fire fighting force made up of slaves – and later the <a href="http://gmfsmuseum.org.uk/education/BackgroundPDFs/history.pdf">Corps of Vigiles</a> that had stations throughout ancient Rome, from which they could attend fires. </p>
<p>Contemporary cities are similarly designed to accommodate the risk of fire. Fire stations occupy key positions so that fires can be attacked within minutes. Fire hydrants are installed offering a constant supply of water to the fire brigade. The way buildings are designed has also changed over the centuries, to minimise the risks posed by fire. </p>
<p>They respond to flames using heat, smoke and flame detection systems, fire sprinklers and alarms. Active fire protection systems are often programmed to automatically inform the fire brigade of an event, as well as to trigger fire doors to shut and mechanical smoke vents to operate. </p>
<p>They are also constructed with fire-resisting components, such as walls, floors, doors and so on. These create fire compartments within the building so that flames cannot spread, inhabitants have time to escape and the fire brigade can do their work. The escape of inhabitants is made through fire exits, which are dedicated, safe routes to be used only in case of an emergency. </p>
<h2>Buildings with memory</h2>
<p>Buildings must meet fire standards and follow regulations, which have existed for a long time. The <a href="https://laws.com/hammurabi-code">first recorded evidence</a> is the rules imposed by Hammurabi, the Babylonian king of Mesopotamia in 1,750BC. Article 229 of his rules stated that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Building regulations first dealt with the protection of occupants, and in more recent years these rules have included the protection of the property itself. Major catastrophes played a large role in these developments. For example, in the UK, after the Great Fire of London in 1666, building regulations in the city became strict and complex. The use of <a href="https://www.locallocalhistory.co.uk/schools/preperation/fire-regs.htm">stone and brick became compulsory</a> and tiled roofs replaced thatched ones. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278650/original/file-20190610-52776-18g502m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278650/original/file-20190610-52776-18g502m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278650/original/file-20190610-52776-18g502m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278650/original/file-20190610-52776-18g502m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278650/original/file-20190610-52776-18g502m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278650/original/file-20190610-52776-18g502m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278650/original/file-20190610-52776-18g502m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This map shows how far the Great Fire of London spread.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London#/media/File:Great_fire_of_london_map.png">Bunchofgrapes/Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Considering their history, building regulations carry a type of memory that relates to past accidents and catastrophes. This memory gives shape to buildings and determines the choice of construction materials, methods and technology, as soon as building regulations are enforced. When new accidents happen, regulations are updated accordingly – and in this sense architecture is always informed by its own failings.</p>
<h2>After Grenfell</h2>
<p>Grenfell Tower was part of the modernist dream to replace slums with high quality social housing. But it was built during the early 1970s, at a time when funding for <a href="https://www.inkpendownie.co.uk/a-very-brief-overview-of-social-housing-in-the-70s.html">social housing was under strain</a>. Although towers were structurally safe, there were no thermal insulation requirements for this type of building. </p>
<p>The cladding that was added to Grenfell tower in 2015-16 – aside from refining the appearance of the tower – was intended to better insulate the building. Yet this cladding is also suspected to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. Like most major incidents, the Grenfell Tower disaster prompted the government to <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-11-29/HCWS1126">update building regulations</a>. Two years after the accident, the government announced:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A clear ban on the use of combustible materials on the external walls of new buildings over 18 metres containing flats, as well as new hospitals, residential care premises, dormitories in boarding schools and student accommodation over 18 metres. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) welcomed this ban, it also <a href="https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/response-to-government-consultation-on-approved-document-b">prescribed a thorough revision</a> of “outdated building regulations and guidance” that could increase fire safety. Earlier in 2019, the British government also allocated £200m towards the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/09/government-allocates-funds-to-replace-grenfell-style-cladding">replacement of combustible cladding</a> on all private tower blocks in England, to avoid similar accidents. In following the updated building regulations and new government instructions, buildings in London will soon carry the memory of the fire at Grenfell Tower. </p>
<p>Two years since the fire, much remains to be done to improve the safety of residents around the UK, and ensure justice for the survivors. Yet the memory of Grenfell Tower is already shaping the evolution of UK cities, and will only become further embedded in the urban landscape, in the hope that future tragedies can be avoided.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stamatis Zografos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Grenfell Tower fire is the kind of tragedy that changes the built environment forever, through new building rules and safety measures.Stamatis Zografos, Teaching Fellow in Architectural History and Theory, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1181212019-06-05T20:09:35Z2019-06-05T20:09:35ZFlammable cladding costs could approach billions for building owners if authorities dither<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278001/original/file-20190605-69083-hb4ybh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Lacrosse building fire in Melbourne's Docklands district rang alarm bells about the risks of combustible cladding back in 2014.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.mfb.vic.gov.au/media/docs/post_incident_analysis_for_lacrosse_docklands_-_25_11_2014%20-%20final-dd61c4b2-61f6-42ed-9411-803cc23e6acc-0.pdf">MFB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian building owners face a bill that could run into billions of dollars to replace <a href="http://theconversation.com/cladding-fire-risks-have-been-known-for-years-lives-depend-on-acting-now-with-no-more-delays-111186">combustible cladding</a> of the sort that fuelled the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40301289">Greenfell tower fire in the UK</a>, which killed 72 people, as well as fires in Australia and <a href="http://www.mfb.vic.gov.au/media/docs/post_incident_analysis_for_lacrosse_docklands_-_25_11_2014%20-%20final-dd61c4b2-61f6-42ed-9411-803cc23e6acc-0.pdf">overseas</a>. The cost estimate is based on our calculations for Victoria, which has had apartment building cladding fires in <a href="https://theconversation.com/lacrosse-fire-ruling-sends-shudders-through-building-industry-consultants-and-governments-112777">2014</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fire-risks-have-been-known-for-years-lives-depend-on-acting-now-with-no-more-delays-111186">2019</a>. </p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-criminal-charges-delayed-but-that-doesnt-mean-there-wont-be-justice-113215">two years on from the Grenfell disaster</a>, there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fire-risks-have-been-known-for-years-lives-depend-on-acting-now-with-no-more-delays-111186">ongoing tension</a> between policymakers, the building industry and owners about how to resolve the problem of combustible cladding. And little information is available about the scale of the issue for owners across Australia, particularly those living in apartments. </p>
<p>So what could the costs be? We looked at Victoria as a case study. Our modelling produced cost estimates of between A$250 million and A$1.6 billion. The ultimate figure will depend on the cost-efficiency of any rectification program and the risk level and size of the 629 buildings known to be affected – and many more could yet be identified.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NStPd-v42mY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Combustible cladding allowed fire to spread rapidly up the Neo200 building in central Melbourne in February 2019.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fire-risks-have-been-known-for-years-lives-depend-on-acting-now-with-no-more-delays-111186">Cladding fire risks have been known for years. Lives depend on acting now, with no more delays</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How were costs estimated?</h2>
<p>The 2018 <a href="https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/building-policy/victorian-cladding-taskforce">Victorian Cladding Taskforce</a> identified 354 low/moderate-risk buildings and 275 high/extreme-risk buildings in a statewide <a href="https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0029/394733/VCT-Taskforce-Update-October-2018.pdf">cladding audit update</a> last October.</p>
<p>There is little data available on dwelling density for Victorian apartment building stock. <a href="https://data.melbourne.vic.gov.au/clue">Melbourne City Council (MCC) records</a> show residential buildings with ten dwellings or more (medium-to-high-density buildings) have an average of 75 dwellings per building in the built-up municipality. Buildings of this density are known to be <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/government-to-act-on-cladding-crisis-but-only-for-buildings-it-owns-20190527-p51rpr.html">receiving notices from the Victorian government to act on cladding</a>.</p>
<p>To model costs we have also used real quotes owners have received to rectify their properties, as well as quotes revealed in media reports. These quotes reveal a range of lower costs for low/moderate-risk buildings and higher costs for high/extreme-risk buildings, usually based on the work for varying levels of rectification.</p>
<p>Firstly, we conservatively applied lower rectification cost data, being A$2,500 per dwelling for low/moderate-risk buildings and A$20,000 per dwelling for high/extreme-risk buildings.</p>
<p>Secondly, we applied higher costs found in quotes and media reports. These are $15,000 per dwelling for low/moderate-risk buildings and A$60,000 per dwelling for high/extreme-risk buildings. These figures are still conservative, based on multiple sighted estimates approaching $100,000 per dwelling.</p>
<p>We have calculated costs for two scenarios for all 629 buildings identified by last October:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>an average of 75 dwellings per building as per MCC data</p></li>
<li><p>an average of 37 dwellings per building, 50% less than MCC data to account for a higher proportion of lower-density developments affected (<a href="https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/121724/Housing-outcomes-in-established-Melbourne.pdf">based on averages in municipalities</a> significantly affected by the crisis such as <a href="https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/cladding">Port Phillip, Stonington and Moreland</a>).</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lacrosse-fire-ruling-sends-shudders-through-building-industry-consultants-and-governments-112777">Lacrosse fire ruling sends shudders through building industry consultants and governments</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So how high could the bill be?</h2>
<p>Our estimates show Victorian owners who are known to be affected may conservatively face a rectification bill of A$250-$500 million, if industry and government work with them to cap costs in economies-of-scale solutions. The bill may be as high as A$1.6 billion, if an inefficient approach is used and we have a higher proportion of larger buildings affected.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=61&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=61&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=61&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=76&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=76&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277823/original/file-20190604-69095-1vb6vrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=76&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cladding audits are ongoing. The number of identified affected properties is likely to rise. At the 2019 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAWpz7v8cdutmOf_GDwtU3Gcs3CLQ5clb">Building Surveyors’ Conference</a>, the Victorian Building Authority appeared to categorise over 1,200 private Victorian buildings as moderately through to extreme risk for combustible cladding.</p>
<p>If this figure is correct, our cost estimates are conservative and will double. </p>
<p>Our estimates do not factor in the apartments yet to be identified or, more broadly, the issues in <a href="https://www.finance.nsw.gov.au/fire-safety-and-external-wall-cladding">other states</a> that have also been identified.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fires-expose-gaps-in-building-material-safety-checks-heres-a-solution-111073">Cladding fires expose gaps in building material safety checks. Here's a solution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Government and industry shun responsibility</h2>
<p>To date, the response of the Victorian government and industry has been to push financial responsibility back onto home owners. A Victorian low-interest loan scheme was launched in October allowing owners to repay amounts over ten years. It has been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-16/combustible-cladding-risk-affects-thousands-but-few-fix-options/10804014">reported</a>, however, that no loans had been granted as recently as February.</p>
<p>The Victorian government’s <a href="https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/budgetfiles201920.budget.vic.gov.au/2019-20+State+Budget+-+Service+Delivery.pdf">May 27 budget papers</a> stated that A$160 million would be spent on the crisis “on public safety grounds”. This including ongoing assessments of private buildings affected by combustible cladding and 15 evaluation projects to manage and improve rectification outcomes.</p>
<p>As yet no funding has been provided to help owners of private dwellings who bought supposedly compliant properties. While <a href="https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/node/6514">billions in revenue is recouped from stamp duty</a>, owners are being told to rectify a problem for which they were not responsible – all at their own cost. </p>
<p>Many owners simply will not be able to pay. Some individual bills sighted are as much as a quarter of the owner’s property value. On top of this, some insurance premiums have quadrupled.</p>
<p>At the vast costs we have estimated, and based on <a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fire-risks-have-been-known-for-years-lives-depend-on-acting-now-with-no-more-delays-111186">the chain of events leading to the cladding crisis</a> and the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/victims-suffer-as-combustible-cladding-crisis-rages-on-20190402-p519yy.html">lack of support following</a>, is it reasonable that sole responsibility falls on owners to pay? And will such a move not lead to thousands of <a href="http://theconversation.com/lacrosse-fire-ruling-sends-shudders-through-building-industry-consultants-and-governments-112777">costly actions through the courts</a> as owners try to recoup costs?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/housing-with-buyer-protection-and-no-serious-faults-is-that-too-much-to-ask-of-builders-and-regulators-113115">Housing with buyer protection and no serious faults – is that too much to ask of builders and regulators?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Government and industry should provide substantial financial support to owners to help them recover from mass <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/fear-over-highrise-tower-fire-risk-in-melbourne-20141203-11zgp7.html">failures of policy, regulatory policing and industry practice</a>. The UK government has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/britain-to-spend-200-million-fixing-combustible-cladding-20190510-p51m2c.html">to the tune of £200 million</a> (A$364 million). It is time to support Australian owners in a billion-dollar crisis they were not responsible for creating.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Phil Dwyer from <a href="http://www.builderscollective.org.au/">Builders Collective of Australia</a> for working with us on the modelling for this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Simon Lockrey owns property which was built with non-compliant cladding, even though it was signed off and sold as compliant.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Trivess Moore has received funding from various organisations including the Australian Research Council, Victorian Government and various industry partners.</span></em></p>Estimated costs for Victoria alone range from hundreds of millions to as much as $1.6 billion If work to rectify buildings fitted with combustible cladding isn’t well handled.Simon Lockrey, Senior Lecturer/ Research Fellow, RMIT UniversityTrivess Moore, Lecturer, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1174272019-05-21T14:28:53Z2019-05-21T14:28:53ZGrenfell Tower: warnings might have been heard if not for the collapse of local journalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275417/original/file-20190520-69178-1dbzsz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C23%2C5218%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Lauren Hurley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48313472">delay to the publication of the report</a> into the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which claimed 72 lives in a disastrous – and possibly preventable – fire at the London tower block, has been greeted with dismay and anger by survivors and their supporters.</p>
<p>Inquiry solicitor Caroline Featherstone said, in a letter to survivors and people who lost family in the fire, that writing the first phase of the report proved to be “far more complex and time-consuming” than anticipated. Its release has been pushed back to October.</p>
<p>The big question that needs to be answered is whether Grenfell should have have happened at all – and why nobody picked up on the very public warnings from tower residents that just such a tragedy was likely to happen. A growing chorus of voices from local and national journalism has pinpointed the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/02/grenfell-tower-local-newspapers-authority-journalism">absence of dedicated local media around Grenfell</a>, saying nobody was looking.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1128386213747019776"}"></div></p>
<p>Six months before the fire struck, Grenfell Tower residents had flagged their serious concerns about the tower in a post on their well-established <a href="https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire">community blog</a> which specifically highlight the very real risk of “a serious fire”.</p>
<p>Why were these warnings not heeded? The tenants’ blog had repeatedly flagged serious safety concerns which would ordinarily be a rich source of local news for on-the-beat reporters.</p>
<h2>Desperate times</h2>
<p>Dominic Ponsford, the editor of the UK’s Press Gazette, told me in a telephone interview in August 2017 that the number of local journalists has fallen by at least a half in the past decade. He also described regional print media to be in “fairly desperate times” facing a year-on-year, 10% decline in print presence. </p>
<p>Ponsford has chronicled the issue of the lack of local media coverage about Grenfell. He <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/journalists-missed-concerns-raised-by-grenfell-residents-blog-but-specialist-mag-raised-alarm-on-tower-block-fire-safety">highlighted that</a> despite the openly available warnings from Grenfell residents on their blog site, which should have been essential reading for local journalists, no journalists picked up the November 2016 prediction about the catastrophe to come.</p>
<p>Geoff Baker was news editor for the Kensington and Chelsea News from its relaunch in 2014, until he was made redundant through cuts in April 2017. His only reporter left the company a few months earlier. He also covered four other west London titles in his role. Baker <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/grenfell-tower-fire-disaster-suggests-more-journalism-is-needed-in-london-not-less/">told the Press Gazette</a> in September 2018:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If someone had phoned me or sent me a release I would have done it, but it just didn’t come on the radar, simple as that. Just because there’s so much else to do if you are doing it on your tod. To my huge regret I wish that I had … Whether that would have made the council change their minds I very much doubt it… It was simply that I didn’t have the time to pull out all the stops because all the stops were already pulled out on other things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Grant Feller is a journalist and corporate media consultant. He began his career on the Kensington News and Chelsea News, the two titles had an editorial team of ten and faced competition for stories from the Kensington and Chelsea Times and the Evening Standard (which then devoted more resources to local borough stories).</p>
<p>Asked whether he thought the concerns of residents would have been picked up by the Kensington News in 1990, Feller <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/former-kensington-reporter-says-local-press-would-have-picked-up-on-grenfell-fire-safety-concerns-in-pre-internet-era">told the Press Gazette</a>: “One hundred per cent yes, we would have picked up on that.” </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we hadn’t found that story ourselves we would have been bollocked by the editor. Any local newspaper journalist worth his or her salt would have been all over that story because of that blog. We would have known about that local group’s concerns because we were very much in the local community. We would have pored over the council meeting agendas and asked questions of the councillors and the officers. But today there is no-one there. Those people can do what they like because there’s no journalists looking at what they are doing. That’s why local journalism is so important.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Democratic deficit</h2>
<p>In the past decade, <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/cmcp/local-news.pdf">hundreds of local UK newspapers have closed</a> and each week brings news of more. Thousands of jobs have gone. Media owners have taken to trying to retrieve revenue from online content. As a result the journalists’ “nose for news” has been downgraded with journalists’ editorial priority now to chase stories designed to drive an audience online.</p>
<p>Candyfloss videos of squirrels chasing puppies and crime coverage from cheap CCTV footage is popular with online readers but, as Liverpool City Council’s chief executive, Ged Fitzgerald, told me in March 2017, it risks ghettoising cities with crime heavy stories that can scare off people planning to move into or invest in the area.</p>
<p>More and more media commentators are warning of the “democratic deficit” created by the decline of local journalism. Matt Chorley, in his <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/closing-local-papers-is-good-news-for-lazy-mps-and-corrupt-councils-ktvqvt2zx">“Red Box” column in The Times</a>, said: “Every time a paper closes, lazy MPs, corrupt councilors, dodgy police chiefs, rip off businesses and anyone in the dock can relax a little. This isn’t just nostalgia. The great and the good didn’t stop behaving badly because we all got Snapchat and iPlayer. Grenfell Tower tells us what happens when poorer areas lose their voice in the local media. Blogs aren’t enough.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A new book called Local democracy, Journalism and Public Relations by Carmel O'Toole and co-authored by her fellow Sheffield Hallam University academic Adrian Roxan, published is published on May 21, 2019.</span></em></p>Residents were blogging about the tower block’s safety issues well before the fire, but there were few reporters around to pick up on the story.Carmel O'Toole, Senior Lecturer in Media and Public Relations, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932992019-03-26T13:45:58Z2019-03-26T13:45:58ZRenters in England can now sue landlords over mouldy, cold or noisy properties – an expert explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265854/original/file-20190326-36283-ukp4iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C370%2C6184%2C4091&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Landlord to the rescue?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/emotional-young-woman-collecting-water-leaking-1294428922">Shutterstock. </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new law recently came into force, which gives tenants in England greater powers to hold landlords to account over homes which are difficult or dangerous to live in. Before these changes, landlords had only limited obligations to keep properties in good repair during tenancies, and as a result <a href="https://blog.shelter.org.uk/2018/12/fitness-for-human-habitation-an-early-christmas-present-for-renters/">it’s estimated that</a> almost 1m rented homes pose a serious risk to health and safety. </p>
<p>The law means that landlords leasing out properties for less than seven years must ensure the place is fit for people to live in at the beginning of the lease – and that it stays that way throughout the tenancy. The legislation covers <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018/guide-for-tenants-homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018">a wide range of potential issues</a>. For starters, homes must be stable, free from serious damp and mould and have adequate natural light and ventilation. </p>
<p>Tenants who face issues with their home’s state of repair, water supply, drainage or cooking facilities, will be able to use the law to push for repairs, if the problems are so bad that the home is deemed unfit for occupation. The law also protects tenants against hazards such as fire, overcrowding and pests.</p>
<p>Where homes fall below these standards, tenants can insist on repairs and claim damages for costs such as health problems or inconvenience caused by living in the property, damage to their furniture or the cost of temporary accommodation.</p>
<h2>Left unprotected</h2>
<p>These may seem like basic provisions, but previous laws gave tenants very little protection. Before the new act, provisions to ensure properties were fit for human habitation only applied to houses rented <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70">below a certain price</a>: £80 per year in London, and £52 elsewhere, to be exact. These rent levels had not been updated since 1957, and given the cost of housing today, they effectively no longer applied.</p>
<p>The only really helpful obligation was section 11 of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70">Landlord and Tenant Act 1985</a>, which required the landlord of residential property, let on a short lease, to keep the structure and exterior and gas, electricity and water installations in repair. </p>
<p>But under section 11, the landlord need only repair the property where it has deteriorated from a previous better state of repair. They do not have to ensure that the property is fit for habitation or safe at all times during the tenancy. </p>
<p>Common problems such as mould and condensation are rarely caught by these provisions, even though they can damage furnishings and make tenants ill. In one case, the Court of Appeal decided that even though a house was “virtually unfit for human habitation”, the landlord could not be held responsible.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265837/original/file-20190326-36270-lxc1d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265837/original/file-20190326-36270-lxc1d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265837/original/file-20190326-36270-lxc1d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265837/original/file-20190326-36270-lxc1d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265837/original/file-20190326-36270-lxc1d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265837/original/file-20190326-36270-lxc1d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265837/original/file-20190326-36270-lxc1d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Damp can be dangerous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.</span></span>
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<p>Residential tenants could, and still can, complain to the local housing authority about poor conditions. Under section 9 of the Housing Act 2004, the authority can carry out a Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) inspection, which rates hazards in the tenant’s home according to how serious they are. </p>
<p>The difficulty with this provision is that the tenant must complain to the local housing authority, rather than take action directly against the landlord. Inspections, notices and enforcement action are uncommon and enforcement rates vary considerably between different councils. As local authorities cannot enforce the HHSRS standards against themselves, the standards are useless for council tenants. </p>
<h2>Landlords’ new duties</h2>
<p>Tenants can now take direct action in court when a landlord fails in his or her obligations, rather than relying on the local housing authority to prosecute. This applies to all new tenancies from March 20, 2019 – and to prior tenancies, if they’re still in place by March 2020. </p>
<p>The only think stopping tenants will be getting access to legal advice and representation. Legal aid <a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/policy-campaigns/campaigns/access-to-justice/end-legal-aid-deserts/">is only available</a> in the most serious cases, and there is a shortage in the number of housing lawyers. </p>
<p>Good landlords are unlikely to have any problem with the law, as it only requires them to provide the most basic standards, which are already enforced under the HHSRS. </p>
<p>The fire at Grenfell Tower <a href="https://theconversation.com/box-ticking-building-regulations-leave-tower-blocks-prone-to-disaster-but-residents-can-fight-back-98183">showed the importance</a> of giving tenants power to take direct action against their landlord – whether private or social – where there are legitimate concerns about housing safety. This new law finally enables them to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Previous laws gave tenants very little protection – but now landlords could face court if they don’t keep their properties in good repair.Emily Walsh, Principal Lecturer in Law, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1132152019-03-12T11:27:04Z2019-03-12T11:27:04ZGrenfell Tower: criminal charges delayed, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263126/original/file-20190311-86690-zeyozo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The campaign continues.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-june-21-2017-664657924">Jane Campbell/Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people, blame for the tragedy was laid at the feet of <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-the-grenfell-tower-fire-is-political-its-a-failure-of-many-governments-79599">local and national governments</a>, the building’s management company and the corporations it had contracted to renovate the tower. Two years on, campaigners have reacted with dismay to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47478091">the news</a> that charges might not be brought until 2021 – meaning that the earliest a criminal trial could take place would be 2022, five years after the fire. </p>
<p>Some seem to believe that the delay in launching prosecutions means that those responsible for the Grenfell tragedy won’t face justice, or that authorities are not taking the case seriously. In fact, the amount of time and resources the police are committing to the investigation suggests exactly the opposite. </p>
<p>The police <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/06/grenfell-survivors-anger-as-police-say-no-charges-till-2021">are reportedly</a> considering a range of offences, including very serious ones such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/corporate-manslaughter-what-is-it-and-could-it-bring-justice-for-grenfell-tower-victims-79588">corporate manslaughter</a>. Corporate manslaughter cases take time to investigate properly because the offence is complex and can be difficult to prove. </p>
<h2>The long haul</h2>
<p>Looking at previous successful prosecutions, on average, it takes three years and one month from the date of a death for a corporate manslaughter case to be investigated, charges brought and the case decided in court. The longest running case, brought against <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35027530">Cheshire Gates & Automation Ltd</a> over the death of a six-year-old girl, took five years and four months from the date of death to sentencing. What’s more, all the previous successful cases have involved only one or two deaths. </p>
<p>Grenfell is a particularly complex case involving 72 deaths, so the investigation was always going to be a lot longer. Apparently, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letters-to-residents-following-the-grenfell-tower-fire-6-june-2018">460 companies</a> were involved in various work at Grenfell Tower over the years, and the police <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/hearings/procedural-hearing-1">have to analyse</a> over 31m documents, 2,500 pieces of evidence and 2,332 witness statements. </p>
<p>Aside from counter terrorism operations, the size of the investigation is unique, involving <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/hearings/procedural-hearing-1">187 police officers and civilian staff</a>. From a legal perspective, it’s reasonable to expect that an investigation of this size would take many years: Grenfell would represent, by a very large margin, the biggest and most complex corporate manslaughter case ever brought in the UK. </p>
<p>The police have said they need to wait until the final report of the Grenfell Tower <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/">public inquiry</a> is published before charges can be brought. This makes sense, as the inquiry may reveal evidence that is useful to the police. Indeed, the fact that the investigation is taking so long suggests that police are prioritising the investigation, and that they are contemplating the more serious charges campaigners have called for. </p>
<h2>Bringing charges</h2>
<p>Once the police have finished their investigation, they will hand their file over to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which will decide what charges are brought. It’s not yet possible to say exactly what the CPS will decide, since it will depend on what evidence the police have found. But if it does proceed it seems likely that multiple charges will be brought against multiple defendants, as has happened before in various corporate manslaughter cases. </p>
<p>For example, corporate manslaughter charges could potentially be brought against the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council and the organisation that managed Grenfell Tower. Police have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/27/met-says-grenfell-council-may-have-committed-corporate-manslaughter">previously said</a> that there are reasonable grounds to suspect these organisations may have committed corporate manslaughter. These organisations could also be charged with health and safety offences. What’s more, individuals involved in these or other companies could possibly be charged with health and safety offences, or manslaughter. </p>
<p>To secure a conviction for corporate manslaughter, the prosecution has to prove the organisation was grossly negligent and that this led to the deaths during the fire. Gross negligence means that the level of care the organisation gave the victim fell far short of what could reasonably be expected. The prosecution will also have to prove that the organisation’s senior management played a substantial role. This is the key part of the police investigation, as it is often difficult to prove the involvement of senior management where the organisation in question is large and complex – like a local authority. </p>
<p>There have only been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Manslaughter_and_Corporate_Homicide_Act_2007">26 corporate manslaughter convictions</a> since the offence was introduced 11 years ago, and almost all of them involved <a href="https://www.healthandsafetyatwork.com/feature/ten-years-on">small companies</a>. The CPS has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-27923572">failed to secure convictions</a> in some corporate manslaughter cases in the past, so the police will want to ensure the evidence is as strong as possible. </p>
<h2>Justice for Grenfell</h2>
<p>If an organisation is found guilty of corporate manslaughter in the Grenfell case, it could receive a fine of millions of pounds – perhaps the biggest in the history of the offence. Individuals could face personal fines or be imprisoned if they are found guilty. </p>
<p>At this time, the police are between a rock and a hard place. If they had rushed to bring prosecutions, they might not have been able to secure all the evidence needed. If the defendants were then found not guilty, the police would have been blamed for botching the investigation. But they are also facing criticism for taking the time they need to carry out a thorough investigation, in order to give any prosecution the best chance of success. </p>
<p>The delay in bringing charges is understandably frustrating, but hasty prosecutions could lead to those at fault being found not guilty and escaping punishment. The police and CPS need to be given time to do their jobs properly to ensure justice is done for the victims of Grenfell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Elizabeth Roper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Police have to analyse over 31m documents, 2,500 pieces of evidence and 2,332 witness statements. This makes Grenfell the biggest and most complex corporate manslaughter case ever brought.Victoria Elizabeth Roper, Senior Lecturer in Law/Solicitor, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1127772019-03-04T19:03:13Z2019-03-04T19:03:13ZLacrosse fire ruling sends shudders through building industry consultants and governments<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261789/original/file-20190303-110140-1tsk03c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flames spread rapidly up the external wall cladding at the Lacrosse building in Melbourne in November 2014. More than four years on, the combustible panels are still in use.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.mfb.vic.gov.au/media/docs/post_incident_analysis_for_lacrosse_docklands_-_25_11_2014%20-%20final-dd61c4b2-61f6-42ed-9411-803cc23e6acc-0.pdf">MFB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the last day of summer for 2019, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) delivered a burst of sunshine to apartment owners at the high-rise Lacrosse building in the Melbourne Docklands precinct. Lacrosse suffered a serious cladding fire on November 24 2014, started by a single cigarette on a balcony. Last Thursday, Judge Ted Woodward <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-28/lacrosse-apartment-owners-win-5.7-million-cladding-fire-damages/10857060">ordered the owners be immediately paid A$5.7 million in damages</a>.</p>
<p>The judge also indicated that the owners would receive most of the balance of their A$12.7 million claim – including nearly A$6 million in calculated costs of compliance with building codes.</p>
<p>However, in our adversarial legal system, there are losers as well as winners. The losers in this case are the fire engineer, the certifier and the architects. </p>
<p>The builder, LU Simon, was ordered to pay more than A$5.7 million to apartment owners. However, the architect, fire engineer and building certifier who worked on the project would pay most of that to LU Simon after Judge Woodward found they had breached contractual obligations.</p>
<p>Fire engineer Thomas Nicholas was ordered to pay 39% of the damages, certifier Gardner Group 35% and architects Elenberg Fraser 25%. Incredibly, the builder, LU Simon, is a winner, assessed to pay only 3% of the damages. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fire-risks-have-been-known-for-years-lives-depend-on-acting-now-with-no-more-delays-111186">Cladding fire risks have been known for years. Lives depend on acting now, with no more delays</a>
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<p>So shocking is the <a href="https://www.vcat.vic.gov.au/resources/owners-corporation-no1-of-ps613436t-owners-corporation-no-2-of-ps613436t-owners">VCAT decision</a> to architects that the national president of the Australian Institute of Architects suggested in an email to members last Friday that they might need to seek counselling. </p>
<p>The decision reminds architects and other consultants that abiding by common practice is no defence if that practice is inadequate. Even though an architect may work for the builder and be employed on a limited commission during construction, they still bear primary responsibility for the safety of the building as the “lead consultant”. According to the decision, architects and consultants are required to exercise high standards of professional judgement and skill even if their commissioning arrangements and fees militate this. </p>
<h2>So is this a win for all owners?</h2>
<p>It looks like a cause for celebration by the owners. But is it?</p>
<p>Well, for a start, this decision has taken over four years to emerge. It may yet be the subject of an appeal. In the meantime, owners and residents have had to live in a building that is not safe, although work to replace the cladding should be complete by May. </p>
<p>Judge Woodward said the decision applies to the specific circumstances of Lacrosse only, so the owners of other buildings, including <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-04/spencer-street-apartment-fire-melbourne/10776018">Neo200, which was evacuated on February 4</a> after a similar fire, might not also be in the winner’s circle. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-overlook-residents-role-in-apartment-building-safety-111255">Don't overlook residents' role in apartment building safety</a>
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<p>Fourteen of the Neo200 apartments are so badly damaged that <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/some-neo-200-residents-told-to-expect-year-long-wait-before-they-return-20190215-p50y26.html">rectification works could take up to a year to complete</a>. If Lacrosse is any indication, the Neo200 legal case might take until 2022 to conclude. </p>
<p>The Lacrosse case ran for 22 days, involved five QCs, five juniors and an army of instructing solicitors, paralegals and expert witnesses. There were 91 volumes of documents tendered as evidence. Legal costs almost certainly exceeded A$2 million, or more than 15% of the damages sought. </p>
<p>Around the country, based on state audits, I estimate around 1,000 buildings have combustible aluminium composite panels on their facades. If they all generate a court case half as complex as Lacrosse, the legal bills alone could total over A$1 billion. </p>
<h2>Government must also answer for deregulation</h2>
<p>Those who eased the regulatory framework in place in Australia since the late 1980s share culpability with the consultants for the fires at Lacrosse and Neo200. Until the early 1990s, Australian building codes prohibited the use of combustible elements on the facades of tall buildings. Throughout the 1990s, the then Building Code of Australia (now the <a href="https://ncc.abcb.gov.au/ncc-online/NCC">National Construction Code</a> or NCC) was relaxed to a “performance standard”, which allowed builders and consultants to believe aluminium composite panels and timber were permissible. </p>
<p>By 2000, despite plenty of evidence that these panels were combustible and therefore not suitable as facade material on tall buildings, the market for them continued to grow. The Australian Building Codes Board did nothing about this, encouraging a potentially fatal error. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fires-expose-gaps-in-building-material-safety-checks-heres-a-solution-111073">Cladding fires expose gaps in building material safety checks. Here's a solution</a>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The ABC reports on the hidden potential killer in Australian buildings following the Lacrosse fire.</span></figcaption>
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<p>So far, on the regulatory side, no one has actually owned up to a mistake. However, the Building Ministers’ Forum is considering the 24 recommendations of a <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/building-ministers-forum-expert-assessment-building-confidence">report it commissioned</a> from Peter Shergold and Bronwyn Weir. New South Wales’ minister for innovation and better regulation, Matt Kean, has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-30/opal-tower-damage-sparks-nsw-government-crackdown/10673968">promised to crack down on dodgy certifiers</a>. In the light of the cladding panel fiasco, he probably should be reviewing his own remit, which is based on the premise that less regulation is better. </p>
<p>The NCC has a goal to encourage innovation in building by allowing alternative solutions to “deemed to satisfy” provisions. Unfortunately, in the case of the cladding panels and other “innovations”, the cost savings may be only a tiny proportion of the costs of rectifying the problems. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-opal-a-10-point-plan-to-fix-the-residential-building-industry-110975">Beyond Opal: a 10-point plan to fix the residential building industry</a>
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<p>Penitent governments should ensure flammable cladding is replaced now, not next year and certainly not in five or six years’ time when another round of court cases are finally decided after appeal. Unless governments act to fix this mistake, one that they are substantially responsible for, someone is going to be killed in a cladding fire in Australia. </p>
<p>As Judith Hackitt, who headed the inquiry into the <a href="http://theconversation.com/grenfell-a-year-on-heres-what-we-know-went-wrong-98112">Grenfell Tower disaster</a>, said last week, a Grenfell-like event in Australia is “<a href="https://www.afr.com/real-estate/entirely-foreseeable-judith-hackitt-warns-of-grenfell-tragedy-in-australia-20190226-h1bqkw">entirely foreseeable</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Hanmer is a member of the RAIA. ARINA had an association with Hayball, the Architects for Neo200 from 2013 to 2016. ARINA and Geoff Hanmer had no involvement in Hayball multi-unit residential projects during that time. </span></em></p>Architects, certifiers and engineers who work as consultants to builders are on notice about potential liability for the use of flammable cladding, but governments are also culpable for their actions.Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Lecturer in Architecture, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1111862019-02-08T03:46:41Z2019-02-08T03:46:41ZCladding fire risks have been known for years. Lives depend on acting now, with no more delays<p>The <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/same-as-grenfell-tower-cladding-fears-as-fire-rips-through-melbourne-cbd-apartment-building-20190204-p50vgl.html">fire at the Neo200 building</a> on Spencer Street in the Melbourne CBD this week has eerie similarities to the <a href="http://theconversation.com/grenfell-a-year-on-heres-what-we-know-went-wrong-98112">Grenfell Tower disaster</a>. Fortunately, instead of 72 people dead as at Grenfell, only one person was hospitalised for smoke inhalation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fires-expose-gaps-in-building-material-safety-checks-heres-a-solution-111073">Cladding fires expose gaps in building material safety checks. Here's a solution</a>
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<p>Nevertheless, the building industry has responded straight from the Grenfell song sheet. Rydon, the main contractor for the Grenfell Tower cladding, <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2017-06-15/statement-from-rydon-after-public-inquiry-announcement/">said</a> the work:</p>
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<p>… met all required building regulations – as well as fire regulation and Health & Safety standards – and handover took place when the completion notice was issued by Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea building control.</p>
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<p>Rydon chief executive Robert Bond <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/15/experts-warned-government-against-cladding-material-used-on-grenfell">said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I will do all I can to assist in this investigation in order to establish what caused this tragedy.</p>
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<p>The Neo 200 architect, Hayball, <a href="https://architectureau.com/articles/cladding-back-in-the-spotlight-after-melbourne-apartment-tower-blaze/">stated</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Neo 200 achieved certification and approval from the building certifier and relevant authorities at the time. We welcome the opportunity to support any investigation into the incident by authorities.</p>
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<p>This appears to be the property sector’s version of “thoughts and prayers”. We’re very sorry, but there’s nothing we can do. </p>
<p>Sadly, this is far from the truth. We have known of the risk for years and the problem can be rectified. </p>
<p>Governments must act to ensure the cladding identified as a fire risk on hundreds of buildings is replaced. Further delay in fixing an identified threat to life is unacceptable. </p>
<p>Before the Grenfell and Neo200 fires, Melbourne had a cladding fire at the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/docklands-owners-sue-for-24m-over-fire-as-date-to-fix-cladding-looms-20180909-p502pc.html">Lacrosse building</a> in 2014. This led to an <a href="https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/media/latest-news/article/2016/vba-releases-external-wall-cladding-audit-report">audit of external wall cladding</a> on buildings by the Victorian Building Authority. </p>
<p>Following the Grenfell fire, states conducted further audits. In October 2018, an <a href="https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0029/394733/VCT-Taskforce-Update-October-2018.pdf">update</a> by the <a href="https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/cladding/victorian-cladding-taskforce">Victorian Cladding Taskforce</a> stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our investigations found dangerous materials are widely used on buildings throughout Victoria, a finding that is consistent with inquiries carried out interstate and internationally.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We now know that hundreds of residential buildings are rated as either a moderate or high risk by the New South Wales and Victorian governments. Over 350 buildings in Melbourne alone are rated “high risk”. Neo200 was regarded as only a “moderate risk”. </p>
<p>Residential buildings are particularly vulnerable to the effects of a cladding fire because people can be asleep and windows are often left open. The amount of smoke generated by the recent Neo200 fire is frightening.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NStPd-v42mY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Combustible cladding allowed the fire to spread rapidly up the Neo200 building.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the UK, the central government has given local authorities the power to replace risky cladding. We should do the same here. </p>
<p>Governments should take rectification out of the hands of dithering strata committees and, if necessary, carry out the necessary work directly and recover the costs from the responsible parties.</p>
<h2>How did we get to this point?</h2>
<p>Polyethylene-cored aluminium sandwich panels – often referred to as aluminium composite panels (ACP), PE or PU panels – were <a href="https://alucobond.com/company#history">developed 50 years ago</a>, patented in 1971 and marketed as Alucobond. When the patent expired in 1991 other manufacturers entered the market, including products marketed as Reynobond (originally Reynolds Aluminium) and Alpolic (Mitsubishi Chemicals). Now, it is estimated over 200 manufacturers around the world produce ACP panels. </p>
<p>By the 1990s, ACP was gaining a level of acceptance in the Australasian construction market. This was aided by the introduction of performance requirements to replace a previous blanket ban on combustible materials being used on tall building facades. The timing of the relaxation of the Building Code of Australia and the introduction of ACP panels to the Australian market by multinational companies could be a coincidence. </p>
<p>By the end of the 1990s, there was growing evidence that the performance-based approach to facade fire protection was not working. Combustible cored sandwich panels were implicated as contributors to serious injuries and death. A notable example was a <a href="https://www.ife.org.uk/Firefighter-Safety-Incidents/sun-valley-1993/34014">1993 fire in the Sun Valley food-processing factory in Hereford</a> in which two firefighters died. In 1997, the <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/burning-issues/181812.article">Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa) experienced a cladding fire</a> during construction. </p>
<p>The general and technical press, including architectural magazines with wide circulation, reported cladding fires in various types of materials, including ACP. </p>
<h2>What can be done to reduce the risk?</h2>
<p>Clearly, a facade fire has serious consequences. The bedrock of all modern fire regulations is that a fire in a tall building must be confined to a single storey. A fire spreading from one floor to the next completely undermines all the elements of protection and control that make egress routes and firefighting viable. </p>
<p>As we saw at Grenfell, a fire that spreads up the facade and involves nearly every storey in the building can’t be brought under control. </p>
<p>By 2000, there was widespread concern among fire professionals and some regulators that ACP was a bomb waiting to go off. A <a href="http://www.cookeonfire.com/pdfs/eurisolgreenreport.pdf">paper by Dr Gordon Cooke</a> clearly outlined the risks. It makes chilling reading in the light of the Grenfell disaster. </p>
<p>Luckily, most tall residential buildings in Australia with combustible ACP cladding have internal sprinkler systems – unlike Grenfell. We might also be able to buy some time by banning barbecues and smoking on balconies, but it is doubtful this will be 100% effective. Another possibility is to physically secure balcony doors shut, but many owners and tenants might strongly resist this draconian measure. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-overlook-residents-role-in-apartment-building-safety-111255">Don't overlook residents' role in apartment building safety</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These measures still will not eliminate the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/victorian-government-refuses-to-publicly-identify/10780228">risk of arson highlighted by the Victorian government</a>. </p>
<p>As the Neo200 fire demonstrates, even a moderate risk is still quite risky. It is extraordinary that a fire allegedly lit by a single smouldering cigarette could spread so quickly across seven floors and generate so much potentially deadly smoke. </p>
<p>An urgent cladding replacement program certainly has its challenges. A campaign that involves working on several hundred buildings at once in Melbourne and Sydney might overload the industry. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the situation has been created by a lack of action by governments. Only decisive government action can rectify it. No more “thoughts and prayers”, enquiries or investigations; just replace the cladding now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>ARINA had an association with Hayball Architects for four years to 2016. ARINA had no involvement with the residential component of the practice. </span></em></p>The risks of combustible cladding on high-rise buildings have long been known. And audits have identified hundreds of Australian buildings with this cladding. Delay in replacing it is inexcusable.Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Lecturer in Architecture, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1112552019-02-07T19:10:04Z2019-02-07T19:10:04ZDon’t overlook residents’ role in apartment building safety<p>For many of us, the reality of Australian homes now sits many storeys up in the sky. <a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-density-and-diversity-apartments-are-australia-at-its-most-multicultural-97176">High-rise apartment buildings have sprouted across the nation’s cities</a>. In recent weeks – <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-lessons-to-be-drawn-from-the-cracks-that-appeared-in-sydneys-opal-tower-but-they-extend-beyond-building-certification-109428">on Christmas Eve at the Opal Tower building in Sydney</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/04/apartment-fire-in-melbournes-spencer-street-prompts-new-fears-over-cladding">on February 4 at the Neo200 Building in Melbourne</a> – that reality has turned into the nightmare for hundreds of residents of being turned out of their homes with little more than the clothes they were wearing.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-big-lesson-from-opal-tower-is-that-badly-built-apartments-arent-only-an-issue-for-residents-109722">The big lesson from Opal Tower is that badly built apartments aren’t only an issue for residents</a></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fires-expose-gaps-in-building-material-safety-checks-heres-a-solution-111073">Cladding fires expose gaps in building material safety checks. Here’s a solution</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>The Opal Tower evacuation was <a href="https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/-/media/Files/DPE/Reports/Opal-Tower-Investigation-Draft-Interim-Report-2019-01-15.pdf">due to structural cracking</a>. At Neo200, a fire raced up the building, <a href="https://www.afr.com/real-estate/combustible-cladding-main-contributor-to-melbournes-spencer-st-tower-fire-20190204-h1atix">fuelled by flammable cladding</a> on part of its facade. </p>
<p>The rapid spread of the fire, and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/cbd-tower-residents-forced-out-of-apartments-after-blaze-20190204-p50vlt.html">its apparent origin in a smouldering cigarette on the balcony</a>, was eerily reminiscent of the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/docklands-owners-sue-for-24m-over-fire-as-date-to-fix-cladding-looms-20180909-p502pc.html">Lacrosse building fire</a> in Melbourne in 2014. It also brings to mind the Grenfell Tower inferno in London (probably <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40301289">originating in a small electrical fire</a>). This catastrophe took the lives of 72 people and devastated the lives of many more.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-a-year-on-heres-what-we-know-went-wrong-98112">Grenfell: a year on, here's what we know went wrong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Media reports of the Neo200 fire included two concerning aspects:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/extra-fire-alarms-put-in-a-fortnight-before-blaze-ripped-through-tower-20190204-p50vjt.html">tenants had been unaware</a> the building was partially covered in combustible cladding</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.mfb.vic.gov.au/Media/docs/Post_Incident_Analysis_for_Lacrosse_Docklands_-_25_11_2014%20-%20FINAL-dd61c4b2-61f6-42ed-9411-803cc23e6acc-0.PDF">as the Metropolitan Fire Brigade found at Lacrosse</a>, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/same-as-grenfell-tower-cladding-fears-as-fire-rips-through-melbourne-cbd-apartment-building-20190204-p50vgl.html">smoke detectors had been covered</a>, rendering them inoperable.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Such behaviours and lack of knowledge compromise critical safety-related equipment. This represents both a challenge to, and reinforcement of, the critical role of residents in ensuring high-rise buildings are safe. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/707785/Building_a_Safer_Future_-_web.pdf">final report</a> of the post-Grenfell “Building a Safer Future” review for the UK government, Dame Judith Hackitt observed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Residents need to be safe, and feel safe, in their homes … they also have a responsibility towards their fellow residents to ensure that their actions do not compromise the safety of the building. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Six elements of residential building safety</h2>
<p>The Hackitt Review joins a raft of reports that have influenced ongoing reform of residential construction regulations. In Victoria, notable recent contributions include the Auditor-General’s <a href="https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/victorias-consumer-protection-framework-building-construction">2015 report</a> on the consumer protection framework, and <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/July%202018/document/pdf/building_ministers_forum_expert_assessment_-_building_confidence.pdf">Shergold and Weir’s 2018 report</a> for the Building Ministers’ Forum.</p>
<p>There is significant agreement between these reviews. Their vision for an effective regulatory scheme can be distilled into six elements, which need to interact holistically:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Information:</strong> all parties who have an influence on occupant safety need sufficient information about the risks in the building to make decisions consistent with protecting occupant safety.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Responsibility:</strong> while the “buck stops” with an adequately resourced regulator, all parties in the residential construction supply chain need to discharge clearly expressed, risk-based and complementary responsibilities.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Standards:</strong> people with appropriate expertise (for example, about how building materials interact) should set standards to be enforced throughout the supply chain.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Competence:</strong> where work requires particular skills and experience, only people who have these should do it.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Quality assurance:</strong> inspection regimes need to provide a robust “last line of defence” to catch defects before they threaten occupants’ safety.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Rectification:</strong> recognising that litigation is slow and expensive, dispute avoidance processes and insurance should expedite rectification.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The Victorian regulatory regime for residential construction mainly comprises the <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/ltobjst10.nsf/DDE300B846EED9C7CA257616000A3571/FF534BFE5E1FF524CA2583150019BDAF/%24FILE/93-126a117.docx">Building Act 1993</a>, its recently updated <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubLawToday.nsf/b12e276826f7c27fca256de50022686b/d6ce1ed4cf4cae14ca25833000014a82!OpenDocument">regulations</a>, the <a href="https://ncc.abcb.gov.au/ncc-online/NCC">National Construction Code</a> which underpins those regulations, and the <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/LTObjSt10.nsf/DDE300B846EED9C7CA257616000A3571/513B8F096A77B1A7CA2583300080DA1F/%24FILE/95-91a084.docx">Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995</a>. Justifiably, much of the recent reform focus has been on the role of the regulator under element 2 – the Victorian Ombudsman’s <a href="https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/Publications/Parliamentary-Reports/Own-motion-investigation-into-the-governance-and-a">2012 report</a> led to the Victorian Building Authority replacing the Victorian Building Commission – and elements 3-6. Contributors to The Conversation have, for example, noted:</p>
<ul>
<li>the difficulties of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cladding-fires-expose-gaps-in-building-material-safety-checks-heres-a-solution-111073">tracking compliant products throughout globalised supply chains</a> (element 3), and how technology can help overcome these challenges</li>
<li>the importance of enforcing competence (element 4) in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-opal-a-10-point-plan-to-fix-the-residential-building-industry-110975">ten-point plan to fix the residential building industry</a></li>
<li>scapegoating <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-lessons-to-be-drawn-from-the-cracks-that-appeared-in-sydneys-opal-tower-but-they-extend-beyond-building-certification-109428">private building inspectors</a> (element 5), as happened after the Opal evacuation, attacks a symptom of the disease, rather than the inherent tension between cost and quality in residential construction.</li>
</ul>
<p>The regulatory response on each of these four elements remains a matter for ongoing debate. This is justified given that the performance-based nature of most standards-setting results in increased competence requirements.</p>
<h2>What about the role of residents?</h2>
<p>The Neo200 experience highlights, however, that the role of residents can be underestimated. In particular, where regulatory elements 1 and 2 refer to “parties”, this very much includes dwelling occupants and others who enter these buildings. It also includes the designers, builders and other construction professionals who are the primary concern of elements 3-6.</p>
<p>Given the diverse ways in which people visit, live or work in high-rise buildings, it will always be a challenge to devise ways to make sure occupants:</p>
<ul>
<li>have enough information to understand the risks of being in such buildings (whether or not there is combustible cladding)</li>
<li>act in ways that reflect their responsibility to keep themselves and their fellow residents safe. </li>
</ul>
<p>As recent moves in Victoria to <a href="https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/consumers/swimming-pools/information-for-consumers-who-have-an-existing-pool-or-spa">register and inspect backyard pools and spas</a> arguably demonstrate, there seems to be robust community support for intruding into people’s homes where the safety risk is seen as high. Is it time, therefore, to mandate airline-style safety briefings in apartments, regular inspections of apartments to make sure smoke detectors are working, and other similar interventions? Certainly, a recognition of occupants as active stakeholders would suggest such measures are appropriate in pursuit of a deeply held community goal of dwelling safety.</p>
<p>As a society, though, are we ready for such state-based assaults on our homes – upon what the Kerrigans regarded as their “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118826/">castle</a>”? Time will tell. In the meantime, the residents of the Neo200 building – like those at the Opal building before them – are left searching for alternative accommodation, and for answers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As more and more Australians live and work in high-rise buildings, their responsibilities and roles in ensuring all occupants’ safety must not be neglected.Matthew Bell, Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of Studies for Construction Law, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1110732019-02-05T01:28:17Z2019-02-05T01:28:17ZCladding fires expose gaps in building material safety checks. Here’s a solution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257129/original/file-20190204-86236-b3h0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The fire in the Melbourne CBD on Monday was a reminder of the urgency of developing a system that guarantees only materials that meet building safety standards are used. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/bekahjaynex">Bekah Jane/Twitter</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/same-as-grenfell-tower-cladding-fears-as-fire-rips-through-melbourne-cbd-apartment-building-20190204-p50vgl.html">fire at the Neo 200 apartment building</a> in Spencer Street, Melbourne, on Monday highlighted the risk to human safety from flammable cladding and other non-conforming building products. Building quality and safety are compromised when there is no transparency about the products used. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://vimeo.com/314639721">experimental research project</a> suggests a solution that uses sensor technology and artificial intelligence. Finding such a solution to ensure unsafe and substandard products are detected and prevented from being used in buildings is critical, given the scale of the problem in Australia. </p>
<p>In 2014, a <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/docklands-owners-sue-for-24m-over-fire-as-date-to-fix-cladding-looms-20180909-p502pc.html">similar cladding fire</a> spread across multiple levels of the Lacrosse Tower in Melbourne’s Docklands. This led to an initial audit by the Victorian Building Authority. </p>
<p>In 2017, after 72 people died in the Grenfell cladding fire in London, the <a href="https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/cladding/victorian-cladding-taskforce">Victorian Cladding Taskforce</a> conducted another audit. It found at least 1,400 buildings contained cladding that was non-conforming to Australian standards and/or non-compliant with government safety regulations. Its <a href="https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/90412/Victorian-Cladding-Taskforce-Interim-Report-November-2017.pdf">interim report</a> concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Victorian Cladding Taskforce has found systems failures have led to major safety risks and widespread non-compliant use of combustible cladding in the building industry across the state.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-a-year-on-heres-what-we-know-went-wrong-98112">Grenfell: a year on, here's what we know went wrong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How could this happen?</h2>
<p>The taskforce noted 12 reasons for non-compliant use of cladding. From a systems perspective, these can be categorised as:</p>
<ol>
<li> incentive to substitute products driven by cost</li>
<li> no reliable means of independently verifying product certification </li>
<li> product labelling cannot be verified to detect fraudulent or misleading information</li>
<li> products cannot reliably be verified as being the same as those approved (and used)</li>
<li> on-site inspections are unreliable or do not take place.</li>
</ol>
<p>Essentially, the taskforce identified a problem with the system of verifying products’ conformance to standards and compliance with government regulation.</p>
<p>Substandard products can be found across a range of materials used in the building sector. These include steel, copper, electrical products, glass, aluminium and engineered wood. For example, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Non-conforming45th">Senate inquiry into non-conforming products</a> found:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] advised that electrical retailers and wholesalers have recalled Infinity and Olsent-branded electrical cables, warning that ‘physical contact with the recalled cables could dislodge the insulation and lead to electric shock or fires’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The taskforce estimated over 22,000 homes were affected. It estimated the cost of the recall and replacement at A$80 million.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reach-for-the-sky-why-safety-must-rule-as-tall-buildings-aim-higher-83223">Reach for the sky: why safety must rule as tall buildings aim higher</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So how can technology help?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257125/original/file-20190204-86198-vmjrnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A QR code can tell you about this bottle of Chianti and, by matching against supply chain data, can be used to verify that the wine is genuine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%2213_QR_CODE_ITA_LANG_-_Chianti_DOGC_wine_bottle_code_scan_smartphone_-_qr_code_steps.png">Andrea Pavanello, Milano/WIkimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar problems have existed in other industries. In the wine export industry, sensor technology has been used to detect fraudulent products in our biggest market, China. This involves scanning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code">QR codes</a> on bottle labels to identify the manufacturer, the batch and other product details that authenticate wine products. </p>
<p>Scanning technology, involving complex data-matching across different data platforms, is used daily – when we use credit cards, for example. The building industry has embraced some excellent systems to collect data of importance such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_information_modeling">building information modelling</a> (BIM). However, BIM does not verify authenticity of products. </p>
<p>In the the case of flammable cladding, data verification to solve the use of non-conforming products is housed across a number of authorities, manufacturers and industry associations. Collaboration is needed to design a system to solve the problem. The data should be collected and stored in a manner that enables secure access by a digital verification system.</p>
<h2>What features does the system need to have?</h2>
<p>Our research focus has been on designing a system based on criteria informed by industry innovators and stakeholders. The system must be able to:</p>
<ol>
<li> collect and match product data in real time</li>
<li> verify non-conforming and non-compliant products in real time</li>
<li> maintain integrity of labelling </li>
<li> store data securely so all stakeholders can verify the status of the building, including architects, builders, site managers, inspectors, owners, investors, insurers and financiers</li>
<li> trace data (and composition) throughout the product life-cycle, to predict maintenance, recovery and repurposing.</li>
</ol>
<p>The system we suggest uses two elements, sensor technology and artificial intelligence, to do all this. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/314639721" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Technology to solve the problem of tracking and validating building product safety is being developed.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does the system work?</h2>
<p>A mobile app that can scan QR codes or “building material passports” is being developed in Europe. The label will hold relevant compliance data of the assembled product and its component parts. This includes building code compliance, and relevant assessments and certifications. </p>
<p>The product’s QR code can be scanned at any time along the supply chain and throughout the life of the building. This then enables its status to be verified via data matching. </p>
<p>Linking to a platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) solves the problem of ensuring compliance with government regulation. CSIRO Data 61 has developed an AI software tool that enables regulation to be coded using AI algorithms to accurately determine compliance. We are working with Data 61 to test Australian regulation and ensure transparency for all. </p>
<p>The solution is designed to plug into existing technology solutions, such as BIM and <a href="https://matrackinc.com/">Matrack</a>, to trace the movement of products along the supply chain and throughout the building’s life-cycle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Usha Iyer-Raniga is Vice President, Education (ACTS). She is on advisory boards/committees such as the Property Council's Sustainability and Wellness Committee.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Argus does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fortunately, no lives were lost in the latest cladding fire in Melbourne, but it’s a stark reminder of the urgent need to track and verify that building materials comply with safety standards.Kevin Argus, Lecturer, Marketing & Design Thinking, RMIT UniversityUsha Iyer-Raniga, Professor, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1074832018-11-29T11:42:05Z2018-11-29T11:42:05ZYouth violence: rise could be linked to British people’s growing distrust of authority<p>There has been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45905954">a surge</a> in violent crime across the UK during 2018, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/26/surge-in-knife-offences-fuels-rise-in-violent">a 22% increase</a> in knife crime and an 11% rise in gun crime. Homicide rates have hit their highest point in over a decade. In London alone, there have been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46128268">123 homicides</a> so far this year, including 70 fatal stabbings and 14 shootings.</p>
<p>Politicians, journalists and experts have blamed a wide range of factors for this upswing in violence: <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/line-18-gang-warfare-is-killing-londons-young-black-men-11447089">gangs</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/09/uk-drill-music-london-wave-violent-crime">drill music</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-43653291">drug turf wars</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/knife-crime-and-homicide-figures-reveal-the-violence-of-austerity-104964">austerity</a>, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/uk-police-cuts-violent-crime-london-stabbings-met-police-chief-cressida-dick-a8357796.html">police cuts</a> and dwindling <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/05/cut-youth-services-violent-crime-sure-start-child-tax-credits">youth services</a>. But <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311066330_%27Going_Viral%27_and_%27Going_Country%27_The_Expressive_and_Instrumental_Activities_of_Street_Gangs_on_Social_Media">having researched</a> serious youth violence in London for more than a decade, we believe that the root of this issue goes far deeper.</p>
<p>Studies <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275838401_Losing_Legitimacy_Street_Crime_and_the_Decline_of_Socal_Institutions_in_America">have shown</a> that when the public’s trust in the government and its elected officials goes down, violence goes up. In other words, if people feel society is unfair, they are less inclined to play by the rules and more likely to lash out violently. </p>
<h2>Losing legitimacy?</h2>
<p>From the handling of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/brexit-9976">Brexit</a> to the fire at <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-people-have-long-questioned-the-point-of-public-inquiries-86648">Grenfell tower</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-hillsborough-law-needed-to-tackle-burning-injustice-and-empower-victims-and-family-86664">miscarriage of justice at Hillsborough</a> and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-windrush/britain-apologizes-to-migrants-removed-in-windrush-scandal-idUSKCN1L617K">Windrush scandal</a>, there are plenty of reasons why British people might distrust their political leaders. </p>
<p>And due to the rise of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-term-fake-news-is-doing-great-harm-100406?">fake news</a>”, there’s also growing distrust of the institution designed to hold elected officials to account – the media. Social media platforms – plagued by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/23/opinions/social-media-fuels-right-wing-extremism-opinion-peterson-densley/index.html">extremism</a>, trolling and disinformation – kindle and spread moral outrage, whether it’s based on real events or not. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247940/original/file-20181129-170229-jofpsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247940/original/file-20181129-170229-jofpsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247940/original/file-20181129-170229-jofpsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247940/original/file-20181129-170229-jofpsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247940/original/file-20181129-170229-jofpsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247940/original/file-20181129-170229-jofpsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247940/original/file-20181129-170229-jofpsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angry reacts abound.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rzeszow-poland-12-february-2018-facebook-1023283927?src=j_UBLrL_96xZ4yEBBBZMfg-1-0">photo_pw/Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>For people of colour – who are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/london-sees-rise-knife-crimes-180224152346205.html">disproportionately</a> the victims and perpetrators of knife crime in London – the <a href="https://www.demos.co.uk/press-release/anti-social-media-10000-racial-slurs-a-day-on-twitter-finds-demos-2/">casual racism</a> they encounter every day on social media can make the world feel especially unfair and unstable.</p>
<p>The annual trust barometer survey by <a href="https://www.edelman.co.uk/magazine/posts/edelman-trust-barometer-2018/">PR firm Edelman</a> found that British people hold “little hope for the immediate future”. And while trust in traditional broadcasters and publishers has risen significantly, more people are switching off from news, and overall levels of trust in government, media and business are flat lining. And that’s before the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambridge-analytica-and-scl-how-i-peered-inside-the-propaganda-machine-94867">Cambridge Analytica data scandal</a> or the recent Brexit negotiations. </p>
<p>In a social and political climate such as this, combined with the strains of austerity, the <a href="http://wapo.st/2xX1B2N?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.39e5090853db">small disagreements, indignities and disappointments</a>, which people might otherwise brush off, enrage them. And this creates scope for the <a href="http://library.allanschore.com/docs/AggresssionSiegel09.pdf">two principal forms of aggressive behaviour</a> – defensive rage and predatory attack — to emerge.</p>
<h2>A trust deficit</h2>
<p>As violence has risen, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-policing-paradox-as-crime-rises-detection-rates-of-those-responsible-fall-103193">the proportion of offences</a> for which police have identified the culprit has fallen, and this further erodes civilians’ trust in authority. In 2017, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/news/news-feed/hmic-raises-warning-flag-as-forces-strive-to-cope-with-increased-demand/">described the shortage</a> of police investigators — including detectives — as a “national crisis”. Even London’s Metropolitan Police Service is short some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/31/wanted-london-detectives-no-experience-necessary">700 detectives</a>. </p>
<p>In October 2018, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45970761">MPs warned that</a> police could become “irrelevant” with so few officers on the beat. Many neighbourhoods with high crime are already inclined to distrust police, owing to their experiences of abuse and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/12/institutional-racism-still-plagues-policing-warns-chief-constable">institutional racism</a>. When police fail to solve crime, people will often bypass law enforcement altogether, instead using violence to resolve disputes. </p>
<p>Not only that, growing tensions between police and communities <a href="https://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/Fair_cop_Full_Report.pdf">can lead to further criminality</a>, because successful police work depends heavily on cooperation with the public. When police fail to provide sufficient deterrence to crime, some people feel they can stab and shoot <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/liverpool-gun-gangs-no-longer-fear-police-7j3xdcrj8">without fear</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247938/original/file-20181129-170226-1gv8baa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247938/original/file-20181129-170226-1gv8baa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247938/original/file-20181129-170226-1gv8baa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247938/original/file-20181129-170226-1gv8baa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247938/original/file-20181129-170226-1gv8baa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247938/original/file-20181129-170226-1gv8baa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247938/original/file-20181129-170226-1gv8baa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police in the aftermath of the 2011 riots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-august-09-clapham-junction-area-82487350?src=TuKpKBCy8uaQqcFrAaIWkw-1-0">Dutourdumonde Photography/Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just as widespread anger and frustration at police was part of what triggered the <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46297/1/Reading%20the%20riots%28published%29.pdf">2011 UK riots</a>, a crisis of legitimacy might well be the catalyst for rising violence today. </p>
<h2>What’s past is prologue</h2>
<p>History is important here. In London, 54 teenagers were stabbed to death throughout <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7117749.stm">2007</a> and <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7510901.stm">2008</a>. Then, as now, people scrambled to explain the trend, accusing “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1554595/Broken-families-fuelling-black-crime.html">broken families</a>” and “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/apr/12/ukcrime.race">black culture</a>”. But 2007 and 2008 were also times of deep distrust. The global financial crisis and the <a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/7501/economics/the-great-recession/">resulting recession</a> confirmed civilians’ worst fears that the strength of the economy was compromised by the risky behaviours of financial institutions deemed “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hsbc-too-big-to-jail-report-george-osborne-letter-warned-of-financial-contagion-if-bank-prosecuted-2016-7">too big to jail</a>”. </p>
<p>Young people leaving school and entering the labour market for the first time <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2011/oct/12/unemployment-unemployment-and-employment-statistics">were the hardest hit</a>, and today their future still looks uncertain – thanks in part to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/education-40493658">mounting student debt</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/22/jobs-travel-study-how-brexit-would-affect-young-britons-eu-referendum">end of free movement</a>. And when feelings of distrust course through society, young people who have experienced severe adversity in their lives already, or who have been let down by institutions in the past, are especially vulnerable. </p>
<p>The root of the problem is that people don’t like <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46336772">division and uncertainty</a>. They are frustrated, angry; and with no outlet for that anger, and no legal recourse, violence continues to creep upward. Some have directed their anger outward to assault and homicide. Others have directed it inward in the form of self harm and suicide — also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/04/suicide-rate-rises-among-young-people-in-england-and-wales">increasingly prevelant</a> among Britian’s youth.</p>
<p>It’s not enough to approach rising violence as a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/violent-crime-stabbings-shootings-sadiq-khan-london-public-health-reduction-unit-glasgow-a8544746.html">public health problem</a>, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/knife-crime-is-a-health-risk-for-young-people-it-cant-be-solved-by-policing-alone-91871">could be solved</a> with appropriate investment in social safety nets such as youth services, social care and early intervention. Government officials and institutions must also act with integrity and moral courage.</p>
<p>People need to believe that others are operating in their best interests; that violent offenders will be held accountable; and that better days are ahead. That’s why the first step towards reducing violence is repairing public trust in authority.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When people don’t trust the government, the media or police, they are less inclined to play by the rules and more likely to lash out violently.James Densley, Associate of the Extra-Legal Governance Institute, University of OxfordMichelle Lyttle Storrod, PhD Candidate, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.