The Reader: Those who signed off Grenfell works must be held accountable

Accountability: A silent march for Grenfell victims
NurPhoto via Getty Images
19 April 2018

The leaked BRE Global report [“Grenfell Dossier of Deadly Failures”, April 16] confirms what many of us feared. Refurbishment works on the tower block from 2014-2016 fell short of building and fire regulations requirements to a catastrophic degree. Sadly, poor-quality work is unlikely to be limited to Grenfell Tower. Families living in similar buildings need this to give them peace of mind.

The impact of the fire at Grenfell will be with us for generations. In any first-world country fire prevention should be of the highest standard, irrespective of being private or social housing. Ultimately, those who specified the defective works, and those that signed them off on completion must be held accountable for those who died.
Malieka Robinson

Those who worked in the construction industry during the Seventies will remember a robust regime of specification and inspection being generally in place.

Price competition at the expense of quality has stripped away independent inspection of works. The apparent woeful lack of scrutiny during the re-cladding of Grenfell should make us ask whether a lengthy EU procurement procedure is an adequate substitute for a regime of supervision by qualified architects, surveyors and clerks of the works.
Chris Graham

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Malieka and Chris

You are right to remind us of an inspection system and building standards that used to be more robust. One of the striking things about the BRE Global interim report is how well the part of Grenfell built in the Seventies resisted the fire.

The report makes clear that it was the shoddy 2014-2016 refurbishment that caused such loss of life. The next step for the police is to pinpoint where responsibility lies in order to bring charges. For this, the search of documents and emails will be crucial. Having defined where the re-cladding fell short of regulations, the designers, contractors, inspectors, Kensington and Chelsea council and the Tenant Management Organisation will be in the spotlight.

Bereaved families and survivors want people to be held accountable for the 71 people who died. But as you say, failures highlighted in this report raise questions for families living in similarly re-clad high-rise buildings.

David Cohen, Investigations editor

After a poor Games, athletics must go back to the drawing board

Steve Cram summed it up best when he said our Commonwealth Games performance was the most disappointing by an English athletics squad he could remember. The preparation, the mentality and the attitude was all too often wrong.

For too long we have masked the lack of improvement in track and field by having good relay squads and one or two exceptional athletes such as Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis Hill. The organisation, funding criteria and management of the sport needs to be more strictly controlled. Athletics needs a centre of excellence, with better coaching, medical and dietary resources, as we have seen in sports such as cycling, rowing and boxing. It needs the same rigid discipline of these sports, which exude the desire to succeed. Then athletics might show some real passion and strength in depth.
Claude Keith

Sorrell will be a hard act to follow

SOME 200,000 staff looking to a future without Sir Martin Sorrell at the helm of WPP are likely to face a challenging time over the next six months. Both the marketing and wider British business community must avoid schadenfreude and focus on building trust in the strength of the UK’s marketing sector. As business models are challenged we must all work hard to preserve and grow the two million roles in the UK’s creative sector.

Whatever the circumstances of his departure, Britain needs more CEOs of marketing firms to reflect the ambition and commercial success of Sir Martin. As the FTSE 100 increasingly reflects global patterns of trade, we must continue to support those who seek to sell our globally leading marketing skills worldwide.
Chris Daly
CEO, Chartered Institute of Marketing

Vaping does more harm than good

I read with bemusement Sam Leith’s comment on vaping on the Tube [“It’s a hot debate, the right to vape, but I’d rather you stubbed out your prissy disapproval of my pretend fag”, April 16]. Annoying vapour aside, the ban is there for everyone’s safety. Vaping is a fire risk, and if you allow vaping it’s hard to stop smoking. In 1987 a smoker killed 31 innocent people at King’s Cross when he dropped a match on a wooden escalator. I bet that person figured the smoking ban was “bossy” and “bureaucratic” too. Is another fire likely? No. But it’s always a possibility. I’d rather just keep the vaping/smoking ban.

As for Sam, if he wants to blow clouds of sickly second-hand vapour into people’s faces he can do it on every street in London. We hardly have a shortage of those.
Dr Simon Abernethy

Make investing in India a priority

The first India-Nordic summit took place in Stockholm yesterday. The Nordic countries support a trade-and- investment agreement between India and the EU and hope that after Brexit it can be done. Then the UK veto over visas to Indian IT engineers and other personnel won’t be a problem.

Unless the UK can offer something to India of mutual benefit and stop our “we will have cake and eat it” imperial attitude, we are not going to get a deal. We want greater access to large and growing markets in the fastest-growing major economy but have rejected reciprocal benefits to Indian IT and bio-pharma industries.

Even Australia wants better access for its professionals here. It is not going to be any easier to have deals with the US, Japan or China either.

It is time to wake up and smell the coffee.
Vipul Thakore

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