Just watched an interview with residents in blocks of flats with ACM cladding same or similar to Grenfell Tower. It's heart breaking to hear these stories of people becoming bankrupt, destitute and even some have committed suicide. Three and a half years on since the disaster there have been no prosecutions, no country wide replacement cladding and no help for the residents who are left in unsafe dwellings, penniless and unable to sell their property or move out. It is a scandal as to why there have been no prosecutions when there is specific H&S legislation with clearly defined responsibilities. Somehow matters seem to be 'bogged' down on building and fire regs, and finding the money. This could be another Hillsborough in terms of how long it will take to be resolved. Meanwhile the poor residents will be left in limbo whilst Government, Councils, housing associations 'et al' just duck and dive and do nothing.
It's disgusting. There's not a chance in hell the Tory council of Kensington and Chelsea will be held to account while ever we have this Government in power. Just watched PM's questions and you could have been forgiven if you thought the PM was a ragdoll will someone please give him a hairbrush.
It's an absolute scandal that this has fallen on the flat owners. Ridiculous. Where are the original developers and the regulators who said the cladding was safe in the first place?
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, place very specific duties on clients (councils, housing associations and the like) and designers (architects, engineers etc). They are responsible for ensuring that the structure is safe to construct, safe in use and safe to maintain. Those duties are within the requirements of 'strict liability'. There has been too much twaddle spouted about the products (cladding), their suppliers and the contractors doing the work, none of whom have any design duties under CDM, unless the form of contract is 'Design and Build'. Contractors install the materials specified by the designers. It is interesting that when ACM cladding has been specified for high rise building in the far east it is installed with regular 'fire breaks'. In the event of a fire the spread is therefore limited.
