More than one in four firefighters who responded to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 and were exposed to toxic smoke have reported long-term, life-changing health effects, new research has shown.
By Kerry Reals on 06 January 2025
A clear target date for completing the removal of dangerous cladding from buildings should be published by the UK Government, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said in a report which found that remediation works are proceeding slowly and up to 60 per cent of buildings encased in flammable materials have yet to be identified.
By Kerry Reals on 05 November 2024
The new UK Government faces major hurdles on a number of fronts – not least the £22 billion ‘black hole’, which leaves little headroom for the Chancellor in her forthcoming Budget.
By Mike Robinson FCA, British Safety Council on 26 September 2024
Decades of failure and deregulation by governments and the “systematic dishonesty” of cladding manufacturers led to the “avoidable” deaths of 72 people in the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the scathing final report from a public inquiry into the disaster has concluded.
By Kerry Reals on 04 September 2024
An investigation into the cause of a fire in a block of flats in Dagenham will be “protracted” and complex, London Fire Brigade commissioner Andy Roe has said, amid reports that the building was in the process of having non-compliant cladding removed.
By Kerry Reals on 28 August 2024
My name is Deepa Mistry and, by day, I am a chartered certified accountant in the not-for-profit sector. By night, I am a resident campaigner for building safety. My journey into this dual life started from a simple but profoundly impactful question: was the end user ever asked what they wanted?
By Deepa Mistry, Building Safety Crisis on 12 July 2024
The Grenfell tragedy uncovered serious fire and building safety defects in hundreds of thousands of flats across the UK, but in the seven years since, politicians, developers and the construction industry have failed to ensure that safety-critical remediation works are carried out quickly and at no cost to innocent leaseholders.
By Campaign team, End Our Cladding Scandal on 04 July 2024
In my previous piece for Safety Management last summer (‘A new Building Safety Remediation Scheme would hold developers and builders to account for all fire and building safety defects in homes’) I set the scene on the unfolding world of building safety remediation and described how I was attempting to change things in the interests of consumer safety. Now with a general election called, there is an opportunity to influence the policies of a new, incoming administration.
By The Earl of Lytton on 28 June 2024
The golden thread topic has no doubt featured many times before. With it being summer 2023, the registration of higher-risk buildings is in full swing, and the policy on the golden thread of information is being finalised with secondary legislation enshrining it expected in various waves soon.
By Sofie Hooper, Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management on 16 August 2023
A new charter and benchmarking scheme aims to encourage all stakeholders in the built environment industry to develop the necessary leadership and culture to put people’s safety first in how we design, build and maintain the built environment.
By Gary Townsend Vila, Building a Safer Future on 15 August 2023
