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Politicians have appeared as witnesses at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry for the first time this week, after calls for investigations into the role of governments in creating the system that caused the disaster.
The first politician to give evidence was Brandon Lewis, currently Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and previously Minister of State for Policing and Fire Service between 2016 and 2017, and Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2014 to 2016.
In a lengthy cross-examination, Lewis was asked why the government failed to impose any minimum standards on statutory risk assessments even though there was evidence that the system was "not working".
Fire safety law from 2005 required landlords to carry out risk assessments of properties, but there were no statutory requirements for properly qualified specialists to carry them out – leaving a gap where anyone could perform a legitimate assessment without the required expertise to be sufficiently thorough and make buildings suitably safe.
The trade union representing firefighters highlighted Lewis's role in damaging the fire and rescue service in the years preceding Grenfell, such as not enforcing proper risk assessments.
Matt Wrack, general secretary at Fire Brigades Union, said: “Politicians over successive decades committed to deregulation as a fundamental political idea. They have scrapped standards, privatised public services and weakened the regime of inspecting buildings. They must bear the brunt of the blame for Grenfell. A clear line can be drawn from these political decisions to key failures at Grenfell, with highly flammable cladding and insulation facilitated by a lack of clear regulation.
“For building safety, civil servants were told that new regulations were off the table and the review of Approved Document B guidance was not a priority. Ministers demanded more privatisation, while weakening local building control with swingeing cuts and edicts for light touch enforcement. They failed to implement the coroner’s recommendations after the Lakanal House fire."
Wrack concluded that "it is time to call ministers to account. The buck stops with ministers in charge in the years leading up to the fire”.
The inquiry continues.
