Peter Apps’ article on the conclusions of the Grenfell Tower inquiry is right to remind us of one of the primary failures of the last governments – to keep us safe (Grenfell is simply explained: firms chased profits, ministers sat on their hands, innocents paid with their lives, 4 September).
Regulations about health and safety were derided and diminished by the Conservatives. In a speech on 27 January 2014, for example, David Cameron said: “We’ve now identified those 3,000 regulations that we’re going to scrap and we have already got rid of 800 of them.”
It is a horrible irony that the Conservatives chose to proclaim this policy as “a bonfire of regulations”. What concerns me is the continuing legacy of the “bonfire” and the very real need for legislative time to restore necessary protective regulations.
Sue Miller
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
I appreciated your in-depth reporting on the Grenfell inquiry report, but I can’t help thinking that the system of company directors is also failing people. Individual directors are rarely held accountable for their decisions affecting the health and safety of others. In many cases, where companies are prosecuted, the company folds and the directors set up a new one under another name.
Instead, we should have a directors’ licence system, with points added after health and safety prosecutions, like a driving licence. Once you’ve collected nine points, you can no longer operate as a director for any company. All directors would then have a vested interest in ensuring health and safety is taken account of at a senior level, and would not be so cavalier about safety issues, as many are. I suggested this, in my role as a health and safety manager, at a conference many years ago, and was told by a barrister: “That’s far too sensible to ever be implemented!” Maybe now is the time?
SallyAnne Clark
Tonbridge, Kent
Placing the “rebel residents” of Grenfell Tower on your list of those at fault for the deaths of 72 people (Grenfell Tower fire report: who was at fault and what was landlord’s role?, 4 September) implies an equivalence of responsibility to that of Arconic, Kingspan, Celotex, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) and the other real culprits.
The residents found themselves confronted by a grotesque imbalance of power. Their efforts to have their voices heard were met with callous responses and systematic dishonesty, in the service of profit over people’s lives. The resident organiser Ed Daffarn apparently made members of the TMO “nervous”. I can only imagine that Mr Daffarn’s nervousness far exceeded theirs.
John Lowery
London
When listening to the roll call of those who died in Grenfell, I do wonder whether there could be a racial aspect to the way the management group and the council approached the problems that tenants raised. From the report, it seems that their concerns were ignored. And after the fire, those who had lost everything and were traumatised were again not treated as they should have been. Is it that those in social housing should be happy to accept what is given to them and not complain?
Nigel May
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
The Grenfell report was equally shocking and predictable. Those of us who live in buildings with combustible cladding are still living with the consequences. My building was remediated by the developer, but our insurance went up tenfold. We are also facing further costs in complying with the Building Safety Act. Following the inquiry report, it looks like there may be further legislation and costs in the future.
All this extra cost is falling on leaseholders, not the developers, freeholders or building industry. This cannot be right, and the government should seek further redress from those who are responsible rather than the ordinary people who bought their properties in good faith and in the expectation that they would be safe.
Jeremy Bunn
Clapton, London
My daughter, Sophie Rosser, died in a fire at Meridian Point in Canary Wharf in August 2012 when she went into the building to rescue her partner, Oscar, whom she believed was trapped in their apartment. As it turned out, he was never in danger, so she gave her life unnecessarily and was the only fatality in the fire. The subsequent inquiries by the London fire brigade, the coroner and the police mirror the Grenfell case: everybody pointing fingers at some other organisation or individual.
The cause of the fire at Meridian Point was simple. A resident left a towel to dry over a lamp fitting, the smoke-detection system didn’t sound an alarm, and by the time she woke up, the conflagration was already serious. A self-closing fire door had become stuck on the floor, preventing it from shutting, and so the blaze took hold of the building. No lesson was learned from this or similar cases, and I doubt that it will be from Grenfell.
Julian Rosser
Cardiff