Construction in the wake of Grenfell - Dame Hackitt’s Review
Fire safety in construction is an ongoing topic of concern, especially since the Grenfell Tower disaster on 14th June 2017.
Grenfell has been heralded as one of the UK’s worst modern disasters and the devastating chain of events involved has led to calls for change across the industry and for legislation governing high rise buildings.
The responsibility of leading this investigation fell to Dame Judith Hackitt, who since releasing her findings has worked tirelessly to be as vocal and open about the findings as possible, including being involved in a number of public webinars and events to shine a spotlight on the issues at hand.
I was fortunate enough to sit in on one of these webinars and have summed up the 40-minute briefing here. It specifically focuses on building regulations and fire safety in high rise buildings in the aftermath of the Grenfell tower disaster.
A new simple framework
The report emphasized the need for a new regulatory framework which will cover the design, construction and maintenance of high-rise residential buildings.
During the webinar, Dame Hackitt showed a visual depiction of the current regulatory framework, which really clarified how convoluted and difficult to follow it is. The new regulatory framework Dame Hackitt has proposed is much simpler, which should make it easier to adhere to and therefore more effective.
From experience of working across a number of industries with regards to health and safety, the propensity to "chance it", whereby organisations often take a conscious decision to not train their employees and hope all goes well, is frighteningly prevalent.
The new regulatory framework must have real authority, so that it can drive the right behaviors and is a disincentive to "chance it" for everyone involved in the construction and maintenance of buildings. This will create an environment where there are inducements to do the right thing and serious penalties for those who don't.
Beyond the build
The Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM) apply to all building and construction work and include new build, refurbishment, extensions, conversions, repair and maintenance. Therefore, this regulation ensures the safety of the people involved with the construction of the building. However, it does not protect the people living within the building.
Dame Hackitt stated the need for a clear representation of risk ownership, with defined responsibilities for everyone involved with the design, construction and, crucially, the maintenance of buildings. For example, the Client, Designer, Contractor and Owner, to be overseen and held to account by a new Joint Competent Authority (JCA). The JCA will comprise the Health and Safety Executive, Local Authority Building Control and Fire and Rescue Authorities.
The range of the Grenfell Review
During the Q&A section of the webinar, Dame Hackitt referred repeatedly to the fact that she was specifically tasked with assessing the building regulations and fire safety in high rise buildings. As it was not part of her remit, she stopped short of recommending a ban on combustible cladding but confessed it is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Within the Grenfell Review, Dame Hackitt admitted that "The safety case regime currently kicks in at 10 floors, there is nothing to say we can’t expand the regime to buildings below 10 floors, but it must be done in a managed way".
Dame Hackitt also explained that there is a clear conflict of interest because at the moment it is possible to pay approved inspectors to advise and regulate you. However, with the new regulations it was clarified that "An approved inspector cannot advise and regulate at the same time". So, if inspectors are to act as regulators, they need to work for the regulator.
The Grenfell Review report sets out over 50 recommendations for the Government as to how to deliver a more robust regulatory system for the future. The main message emphasises that this tragedy should shock the whole industry to take steps to avoid anything like this from ever happening again. Hopefully with the introduction of a new, simple but robust framework, it never will.
An ongoing situation
Over the last 24 hours there have been continued reports about the disaster and how it was handled, mainly with a focus on Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s 1,000-page report which was leaked to the Daily Telegraph and concentrated on the behaviours of the London Fire Brigade on the night in question.
This report focused on a distinct lack of decision making around abandoning the standard policy of "stay put until help arrives" in order to effectively execute an evacuation of the building much sooner, potentially saving more lives.
The decision was not made until almost two hours after the fire began; at the time there were 117 people in the building - only 46 of them escaped.
There is no doubt in the report that the extraordinary courage showed by the firefighters led to the rescue of 223 residents, demonstrating a "selfless devotion to duty." But there are sections that highlight the preparations for dealing with such a tower block fire being wholly inadequate and a lack of appropriate working equipment a major hindrance on the night.
Risk aversion methodologies, audits, disaster planning, being responsive to lessons learnt, the Grenfell Tower disaster is an extreme example of all of these things going wrong and not coming together to create the safest environment possible. However, in this tragedy there are lessons to be learnt.
The Building Safety Regulator
Moving forwards, Dame Judith Hackitt has been named as government advisor for its new building safety regulator, which was a proposal put forward in Dame Judith’s original report.
All of the 53 recommendations put forward have also been confirmed as being implemented, as announced in the Queen’s speech earlier in the month. The regulator will oversee the design and management of buildings, with a focus on ensuring that the new plans and regulations are applied to higher-risk buildings. It will also be given powers to apply criminal sanctions to building owners that fail to meet regulations under the new regime.
This arguably marks the "biggest reform to the building safety regime for 40 years" according to Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The proposals put forward in Building a Safer Future were published in June 2019 and the response to the feedback gained is due by the end of the year.
