Neglected Legal Powers to Address Grenfell Tower Fire Safety Crisis
Legal powers introduced since the Grenfell Tower fire to force building owners to fix serious fire safety issues are being ignored, Sky News can reveal. One of the UK’s first Building Remediation Orders, issued by a judge last year, gave the owners of a block of flats in Bristol six months to fix serious fire safety defects including removing dangerous Grenfell-style insulation. The court’s deadline has now passed and nothing has been done, leaving residents fearful in their homes. As a major report is published tomorrow to name and shame those responsible for the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower that killed 72 people on 14 June 2017, there are still hundreds of thousands of people living in buildings they know to be unsafe.
Seven years on from the disaster, legislation enacted to end Britain’s building safety crisis has failed to be enforced. At least 3,280 buildings are known to still have unsafe cladding, with only 949 of those having started works, according to the latest government data.
Ignored Building Remediation Orders
“It’s something you think about every day,” says Steph Culpin, 37, who owns a flat on the second floor of the colourful block needing repair in Bristol. “There are people in the building that might struggle to get out if there’s a fire… the best we’ve got is that a fire hasn’t happened. And that’s scary to think about.” Ms Culpin bought her two-bedroom flat in Orchard House, a former office building that was extended and converted into 54 flats in 2018, a year after the Grenfell Tower fire.
It wasn’t until 2019 that she and other residents were informed through new fire surveys required post-Grenfell that there was a litany of alarming safety risks. Flammable material around Ms Culpin’s windows and installed between the two buildings of her block was labelled “high risk”. And the shock discovery of combustible insulation manufactured by Celotex, one of the firms that gave evidence at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, meant Orchard House was given the lowest fire safety rating available on a five-point scale. The Building Safety Act, which was drawn up in the wake of the Grenfell fire and took effect in 2023, placed responsibility on building owners to replace defective materials.
Unresponsive Building Owners
However, the owner of Orchard House, Stockwood Land 2 Limited, currently run by Amarjit Singh Litt and previously by members of the Litt family, has refused to engage with any of the problems found. In November 2023, Ms Culpin and a fellow resident became one of only a handful to take their freeholder to court to try to force action. Orchard House’s owner didn’t attend the court hearing despite the judge ruling they “knew or ought to have known about these proceedings”. The tribunal ruled in favor of the residents and ordered the owner to carry out the work by June 2024. However, the deadline came and went, the work has not been done, and no one from Stockwood Land 2 Limited has responded to the many attempts to contact them.
Residents’ Frustrations
“When you talk to somebody that isn’t in this situation, it’s actually really difficult to get across the severity of it and how it makes you feel,” Ms Culpin says. “From a mental health point of view, from a financial point of view.” Because they just go, ‘surely somebody is going to make sure they do that. Are you sure you’ve spoken to the right people?’ and those are [the] sort of questions that you get and you go, ‘yeah, I’ve knocked on every door we have. And they’re all just shut’.” Ms Culpin can’t sell the flat because until the work has been done no mortgage lender will approve an application from a buyer. She is now paying interest on a Help To Buy Loan she cannot pay off. All government schemes to help fund remedial works have to be agreed upon by the building owners and cannot be instigated by residents.
Residents Living with Uncertainty
In Birmingham, Paul Baston, 66, lives on the top floor of Liberty Place, a high-rise canal-side development. Standing on his balcony, the problem is clear. Banned aluminum composite (ACM) cladding covers the outside walls from floor to ceiling. ACM is the same cladding that was on Grenfell Tower and was immediately forbidden from being used on buildings after the tragedy. “It is very, very stressful. It’s very worrying. You live with it all the time,” says Mr. Baston, who keeps his passport, driving license, keys, and wallet on his bedside table in case he has to evacuate the building in a hurry. He worries about others in the building with young families or elderly relatives. “You’ve got to be mindful and be prepared. And this is as prepared as I can be,” he says. Mr. Baston’s building is owned by Lendlease, who told Sky News it plans to carry out replacement work later this year.
In another part of Birmingham, Jim Illingworth, 65, has new cladding which was replaced by his building’s owners under the government’s Building Safety Scheme. But not all fire risks have been removed. Internal surveys routinely carried out by mortgage lenders and insurance companies have revealed a design flaw that means fire could still spread rapidly between flats. Mr. Illingworth, who lives in the one-bedroom flat with his wife, says it leaves the building “half-safe”. Now categorized as just one rating above Ms. Culpin in Bristol, his risk is deemed low enough that remedial works are not required.
Continued Struggles for Residents
“According to the government, it’s nice and safe – according to the insurers and the mortgage people, it’s not safe. So we’ve got the government saying one thing and the practicality on the ground saying something totally different.” It means Mr. Illingworth is paying three times as much in building insurance compared to when he moved in. He says there are estate agents who “won’t touch the buildings” due to banks still being reluctant to offer mortgages on the flats. Recommendations in the final report from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry will focus on the technical aspects of the fire at the west London building “to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.” But people across the UK are raising the same warnings and living with the same combustible materials which made up Grenfell Tower, as well as uncovering new fire risks every day. Sky News will have full coverage of the Grenfell report tomorrow on all platforms.
