Fears of a ‘Grenfell-scale tragedy’ are being overlooked by the government according to a civil servant’s resignation letter obtained by the Guardian.
In January, a senior civil servant called upon the building safety minister, Lee Rowley, to approve a nationwide programme to investigate crumbling concrete in schools, public buildings, and social housing, which had been built with the same concrete panels that caused the Ronan Point collapse in 1968 where four people died. Despite these urgent concerns, Rowley’s office told officials to rewrite the submission to ‘include the do nothing’ [option]’.
Eight months later, pupils and staff from more than 150 schools suffered disruption and have been forced to make temporary provisions at short notice after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found in several school buildings. Whitehall sources said concerns from the Cabinet office about Raac dated back to 2021 and 2022.
The civil servant expressed concerns over ‘potentially catastrophic life-safety implications’ and about being unable to address them ‘in a meaningful way’. However, the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) denied these claims, saying that the ‘do nothing’ option was ‘standard practice’. Moreover, it denied any allegations that civil servants were not allowed to address building safety risks or that the system is flawed.
The submission came after a year-long project by an expert structural safety group which specifically raised concerns about brick-effect cladding as well as highlighting the dangers of lightweight timber and steel buildings suffering ‘disproportionate collapse’ in fires.
The importance of upholding building safety standards was highlighted by the horrors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 where 72 people died due to the use of highly combustible cladding. Following years of inquiry, it was revealed that previous government ministers had failed to adequately strengthen fire regulations.
Questions about the thousands of homes built using ‘large panel systems’ needing structural surveys, and strengthening work, were also largely ignored despite several blocks recently being demolished after being deemed unsafe.
Despite criticism, the DLUHC said: ‘following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the government introduced some of the toughest building safety regulations in the world through its landmark Building Safety Act. The act introduced a new building safety regulator to investigate any potential risks that may affect residents’ safety.’
