Is the Grenfell Tower Fire Linked to Tory Austerity Cuts?

No-one can have watched the terrible events unfolding in the early hours of Wednesday morning without feeling the horror of what those poor innocent families have had to endure. Our hearts go out to them and to the amazing Fire & Rescue and ambulance services for many of whom this has been the worst ever they have had to deal with.

My first impression, at 3am in the morning, was of disbelief at how fast the fire had spread and taken hold. The whole building was alight apart from a small section on one side of the lower floors. How, in this day and age of strict building regulations and health & safety rules could this happen? Where were the sprinklers, fire doors, fire retardant floors and ceilings and alternative emergency exits? Apparently, sprinklers only need to be installed in new buildings and Grenfell Towers was built in the 1970's. Surely, commonsense should have made it obvious that this could potentially have saved lives!

According to tv news reports the building had only recently undergone extensive refurbishment and cladding had been added to the exterior to improve the appearance of the building. The Independent Online reported that this rainscreen cladding may have been partly responsible for the fast spread of the fire, acting as a chimney and conduit enabling the fire to creep up the outside of the building.

A few years ago, when Theresa May's new Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell, was housing minister, a series of damning reports had been sent to him after a coroner's investigation into the Lakanal House fire in 2009 had revealed that the cladding on the exterior of the building had not had sufficient fireproofing, and he had promised to review part B of the Building Regulations 2010, relating to fire resistance and fire risk assessments. No action was taken. WHY?

According to the website of Rydon, the contractors who installed the cladding as part of an £8.6m upgrade, the improvements were intended to "improve thermal insulation and modernise the exterior of the building". There is no mention of improving fire safety.

Dr Claire M Benson, who is a fire scientist in the Explosion & Fire Research Group at London South Bank University has outlined some areas of the fire safety recommendations included in part B of the Building Regulations 2010 Act. 

• Limiting igniton sources

• Limiting fire spread opportunities - so the fire should not be able to spread through a building quickly. Materials have fire ratings and should be chosen specifically to prevent this. If reports of rapid fire spread in Grenfell are correct many questions will be asked about the materials used, and air flow e.g. were there gaps between floors or in the skin causing a chimney type effect that funnelled the flames upwards?

• Enabling warning to building users as early as possible

• Enabling safe and timely escape

• Allowing emergency service access into to the building to rescue occupiers and fight the fire

In addition to the above, the Grenfell Tower managers had maintained a "stay put" rule in the case of a fire meaning that many residents had stayed in their flats rather than attempting to vacate the building. 

The Grenfell Resident's Asociation had been complaining that safety concerns had been falling on “deaf ears” having stated in 2016 that a serious fire in the tower block with a catastrophic loss of life would be the only was they could bring the management company to justice. They had also complained that the fire alarms were not working properly and that there had been power surges on previous occasions. Why was nothing ever done about this?

It will probably be some time before the authorities can complete their investigation into the cause of the fire and make anyone accountable for it but in the meantime consider the following:

The Tories, many of whom own multiple properties themselves, have consistently voted down tenants’ rights in the last few years, including a bill requiring that landlords make their homes fit for habitation. In 2016, 72 of these Tory MPs voting against the measure were landlords. 

Grenfell is in the borough of Kensington, which recently took the seat off the Tories in favour of Labour. In addition, we now have 7,000 less firefighters than five years ago due to the Tories austerity cuts and as a result fire prevention visits to homes have been reduced by 25%. 

So, if anyone is to blame for this dreadful tragedy, surely the answer is glaringly obvious. Let's lay these innocent victims of austerity to rest in peace first, but then its time to speak out and say "No more! This ends NOW!!