The political dimension to the Grenfell Tower catastrophe began to become apparent as Gavin Barwell, the newly appointed chief of staff to Prime Minister Theresa May, and a former housing minister, came under scrutiny, over failure to commission a review of fire safety regulations following past inquests which had raised questions about existing rules.
Ronnie King, the Honorary administrative secretary of the House of Commons All Party Parliamentary Group Fire Safety and Rescue Group told LBC Radio that the government had failed to take up recommendations of the group and others of the need to review these regulations for tower blocks following a 2009 fire in South East London in which 6 people had been killed. “Successive ministers since 2013 have said they are still looking at it,” he told LBC on Wednesday morning.
Mr. Barwell was the minister of state for housing and planning from July 2016 to June 2017, when he lost his seat in the general election, and took up the role as chief of staff to Ms. May, following the resignation of her previous two chiefs of staff.
“Our group recommended that due to the speed that the fire spread in Lakanal House, that building regulations should be reviewed. It's nearly 11 years since it has been reviewed,” said Mr. King.
The horrific scene that unfolded at Grenfell Tower in West London from early on Wednesday morning has raised questions about how such a fire could take hold of a building so quickly in 21st century Britain. Attention has focused on recent refurbishments to the building, including the installation of exterior cladding.
Some eye-witnesses and residents who spoke to British media pointed to the way the fire had firmly taken hold of the cladding. Rydon, the company responsible for the refurbishment said that the work, completed last summer, on behalf of the Council said that the work had met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards.
Attention has also focused on the concerns long raised about fire safety by the Grenfell Tower Action Group established 7 years ago, and which had chronicled their concerns and efforts to bring about changes on a blog. “All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time,” the group said on the blog on Wednesday afternoon.
Some residents who spoke to gathered media noted that there was no central fire alarm system and that having alarms was up to individual residents. Mr. King told LBC that there were around 4,000 tower blocks in Britain that didn’t have fire sprinklers fitted in them, and that requiring these was one of the strong recommendations of the APPG.
Also under scrutiny was advice pinned up on the walls of the tower block (Which the action group said had only followed its insistence) that residents should stay in their house in the event of a fire elsewhere in the building. Some residents ignored the advice and were able to make it out of the building but horrific images showed people stood at windows screaming for help, and throwing young children out of the window to attempt to save their lives..
London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the BBC that while the immediate priority was on recovery and accommodating and helping the 120 families that had seen their homes and possessions destroyed, there were questions that needed to be answered about the fire.
