Lurdan
old wave
This weeks Inside Housing Grenfell Diary (archived):
Grenfell Tower Inquiry week 68: ‘Can we agree that was a pretty dangerous thing to have, all this falling on one man’s shoulders?’
(Links to the daily reports at the bottom of that page. All links should be working)
Thursday was day 250 of the public hearings in Phase 2 of the Inquiry.
Another very interesting week. First Louise Upton, head of the fire safety policy team, originally within the DCLG (currently the DLUHC - it's a department which has changed names more often than a dodgy builder) but which was moved to the Home Office. Then the most senior former civil servant the Inquiry will hear from, Melanie Dawes, formerly DCLG Permanent Secretary, currently the chief executive of OFCOM.
And lastly the first day of evidence from Brian Martin. Originally from a local authority building control background, between 1999 to 2008 Martin was seconded to the DCLG from the Building Research Establishment. He then moved to the Department as a policy lead in 2008, and became the DCLG's in-house expert on the fire safety aspects of the Building Regulations and associated guidance. After the fire he was promoted to Head of Technical Policy. At about the time that this module of the Inquiry began last autumn, (and also at the point that Michael Gove took over the Department, amongst other things to reset the Government's post-Grenfell response), Martin was in his words "encouraged to find an alternative post" and currently works in the planning directorate.
Martin will be giving evidence all next week (and possibly into the week after). It was made quite clear on this first day of evidence that he will be questioned very robustly about his role in the DCLG's failure to spot the growing use of combustible materials in cladding systems, to address the inadequacy of the Building Regulation guidance which was interpreted as permitting this, and his failures both to clarify the guidance when asked to, and to flag the importance of the issue up within the DCLG hierarchy. All of this despite multiple specific warnings and 'learning opportunities' from the early 2000s onwards.
We will get into the meat of his evidence - the period when he played a more direct role in forming policy, both by commission and omission, next week.
As I said last week people have been looking forward to Martin's evidence with keen interest. It is perhaps worth stressing that while Martin played a very significant role in how it became possible to wrap buildings in combustible materials, this in no way exonerates every other fucker involved at every level of the manufacturing, construction, housing management, product certification and building control (etc etc etc) sectors.
The Inside Housing Grenfell Diaries are doing a very good job IMO (obviously from a housing association industry perspective) but by now there is a very great deal to cover each week. If you're not already listening to it I recommend the weekly BBC podcasts as another extremely useful overview.
Grenfell Tower Inquiry week 68: ‘Can we agree that was a pretty dangerous thing to have, all this falling on one man’s shoulders?’
(Links to the daily reports at the bottom of that page. All links should be working)
Thursday was day 250 of the public hearings in Phase 2 of the Inquiry.
Another very interesting week. First Louise Upton, head of the fire safety policy team, originally within the DCLG (currently the DLUHC - it's a department which has changed names more often than a dodgy builder) but which was moved to the Home Office. Then the most senior former civil servant the Inquiry will hear from, Melanie Dawes, formerly DCLG Permanent Secretary, currently the chief executive of OFCOM.
And lastly the first day of evidence from Brian Martin. Originally from a local authority building control background, between 1999 to 2008 Martin was seconded to the DCLG from the Building Research Establishment. He then moved to the Department as a policy lead in 2008, and became the DCLG's in-house expert on the fire safety aspects of the Building Regulations and associated guidance. After the fire he was promoted to Head of Technical Policy. At about the time that this module of the Inquiry began last autumn, (and also at the point that Michael Gove took over the Department, amongst other things to reset the Government's post-Grenfell response), Martin was in his words "encouraged to find an alternative post" and currently works in the planning directorate.
Martin will be giving evidence all next week (and possibly into the week after). It was made quite clear on this first day of evidence that he will be questioned very robustly about his role in the DCLG's failure to spot the growing use of combustible materials in cladding systems, to address the inadequacy of the Building Regulation guidance which was interpreted as permitting this, and his failures both to clarify the guidance when asked to, and to flag the importance of the issue up within the DCLG hierarchy. All of this despite multiple specific warnings and 'learning opportunities' from the early 2000s onwards.
We will get into the meat of his evidence - the period when he played a more direct role in forming policy, both by commission and omission, next week.
As I said last week people have been looking forward to Martin's evidence with keen interest. It is perhaps worth stressing that while Martin played a very significant role in how it became possible to wrap buildings in combustible materials, this in no way exonerates every other fucker involved at every level of the manufacturing, construction, housing management, product certification and building control (etc etc etc) sectors.
The Inside Housing Grenfell Diaries are doing a very good job IMO (obviously from a housing association industry perspective) but by now there is a very great deal to cover each week. If you're not already listening to it I recommend the weekly BBC podcasts as another extremely useful overview.
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