Spec Finish

Feature 12 www.thefis.org M ore than three years have elapsed since the shocking conflagration of the Grenfell Tower and many would argue that not much has yet been achieved to ensure that we will never again see such a devastating towering inferno. This may be true in terms of outputs although Dame Judith Hackitt has been responsible for the most significant in her seminal report, Building A Safer Future. Dame Judith didn’t pull any punches and neither should we. Anyone who has listened to the evidence that has been presented to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry cannot but be shocked at the rotten state it has revealed. It is not for me to pre-empt what the report on the second phase of the Inquiry will say but the evidence presented suggests a narrative of an industry that races to the bottom in terms of cutthroat pricing of work, underpinning a broken business model that means even if the price was sensible, contractors do not begin to make money until after the project is complete – unless they cut corners, which is where project substitution and inferior quality become their cost saviours; and when it all goes wrong, with or without a human cost, there are so many other players involved that ‘pass the buck’ becomes the name of the game. On 20 July, the Government published a draft Building Safety Bill and, perhaps influenced by the difficulties in implementing the ban on combustible cladding, this has been offered up for pre-legislative scrutiny, MAKING BUILDINGS SAFER GrahamWatts OBE , Chief Executive of the Construction Industry Council, says that the draft Building Safety Bill, now undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny, should herald the beginning of a new safer regime for buildings. Anyone who has listened to the evidence presented to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry must be shocked at the rotten state it has revealed