RoSPA's response to the Hackitt Review

Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety has identified “deep flaws” in the current system and calls for a change in culture.

RoSPA welcomes the goal-setting and risk-based approach advocated by Dame Judith, which places a responsibility firmly on the shoulders of duty holders to ensure, through careful assessment and planning, that the design, construction, use, modification, maintenance and eventual demolition of buildings is suitably safe.

Rigorous and transparent safety judgements at every stage are needed if tragedies such as Grenfell are to be avoided in the future. We need a complete change of both regulation and safety culture in buildings safety in the UK so that box ticking and corner cutting are banished for good and everyone can have confidence that the built environment does not contain hidden time bombs such as that which took 71 lives and damaged so many more in this dreadful but quite avoidable disaster.

We also welcome yesterday’s announcement by Housing Minister James Brokenshire of a consultation into the banning of combustible materials in cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings, and look forward to contributing to it. RoSPA’s National Home Safety Committee includes representatives with both fire and more general building and home safety expertise, and we will ensure that our response takes their views into account.