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The tragedy at Lakanal House Camberwell was quite frankly something that was only a matter of time before it occurred. When Chainbow moved over to focus on residential block management 3 years ago it was self evident that the residents in residential towers are entirely reliant upon the developers, builders and managers for their lives.
You can never know what is happening inside each of the flats and wether the Camberwell fire was arson, accident or just bad luck is irrelevant. What is key is that there are hundreds of towers that will never know whether they are just lucky to have not had a fire.
We will now have endless inquiries into what, where, why and when. But the Government decided that health and safety and fire protection is for self regulation. The Government have never brought in the same building standards or residential towers as commercial towers.
I know of one development where the contractors did not complete fire stops and left gaps in fire doors! All the regulation under the sun won’t help that!
And whatever recommendations come out of the inquiries, who will pay for any works? Most blocks can barely afford to run themselves let alone start to look at retro-fitting works to improve safety. Plus improvements are not recoverable through service charge, and freeholders sure won’t pay.
So for goodness sake before we get unrealistic recommendations then think about reality and what has been allowed to be built and it is people’s homes and investments that could be decimated. Sure their lives need protecting, but they put their faith in the professionals when buying the flats.
13 Jul 2009 08:48:39