Ruth Cadbury Quizzes PM over Constituents 'Afraid to Go to Sleep'

Recladding scandal raised in wake of Grenfell Report

Cost of making buildings safe continues to fall on homeowners and leaseholders

September 6, 2024

Brentford & Isleworth MP Ruth Cadbury has raised the issue of her constituents being forced to live in unsafe buildings in the wake of the publication of the report into the Grenfell Tower fire enquiry.

This Wednesday (4 September) the second phase of the report was released revealing a widespread and systematic failure by successive Governments, public bodies and private companies. The inquiry by Sir Martin Moore-Bick said that ‘the simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable’. The report found that there was ‘systematic dishonesty’ from those who made and sold the cladding on Grenfell, while also warning that successive governments had ignored warnings and watered down building safety standards.

The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, made a statement to Parliament after the publication and said that ‘‘The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty. To protect you and your loved ones. The people we are here to serve and I am deeply sorry.’’

In a parliamentary question, Ms Cadbury said that some of her constituents were still afraid to sleep at night while they wait for fire safety issues in their blocks to be rectified. She asked the Prime Minister what urgent action would be taken to remediate their flats.

She told the House, “The building standards that informed the recladding of Grenfell and the building of more recent blocks of flats were strong on thermal insulation to save energy costs but very weak on fire safety, an their implementation, as we now know from this report, has been even worse. The building regulations of other jurisdictions cover both thermal insulation and fire safety risks. How long will it take for UK building regulations to catch up?”

The Primes Minister responded that this was an issue that would have to be looked into and added, “I accept that there are people today in accommodation where they fear for their safety because of the conditions in which they are living. Having spoken to some of those people, I got a sense of what it is like for them to worry every night about the safety of themselves and their family, particularly those with children.”

Commenting afterward the Brentford & Isleworth MP said, ''I'm thinking of the those who died in the Grenfell fire & their families and friends. The release of the inquiry report will be an extremely difficult and traumatic time for them.

“The report exposed a shocking failure in our building industry, in our regulations and in successive governments. Warnings were ignored and advice was not listened to. The result was the horrific death of 72 people.

“Meanwhile many people locally remain trapped in unsafe flats which have still not had their dangerous cladding removed and other fire safety issues addressed. In some cases this is due to developers not paying to fix faults, and in another it is because of a national shortage of qualified fire safety engineers. We need to see urgent action from both developers and from the Government to fix these problems . People living in these flats are living in fear of their lives and are unable to sell their properties, leaving them trapped in limbo.

“I will continue to put pressure on developers and work with the Government to tackle the building safety crisis.’’