Seven years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people, legislation enacted to end Britain’s building safety crisis and tackle the issue of dangerous cladding is not being enforced, Sky News can reveal. A report following a public inquiry is released today.
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 today 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.
‘Scary to think about’
“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.
Litany of safety risks
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.
Owner has refused to engage
But 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 favour of the residents and ordered the owner to carry out the work by June 2024.