Inspecting all buildings that may require remediation could cost up to £62m
Fire and rescue services’ enforcement of building safety is being hindered by deep-rooted flaws in the system, the National Fire Chiefs Council has warned.
Launching its position statement on remediation, the body has urged ministers to establish a centrally-coordinated programme to tackle compliance, funding, accountability and workforce shortages.
It said it welcomed the intent of the government’s Remediation Action Plan but that major barriers remained, with significant data gaps hindering progress. Government estimates of affected buildings have fluctuated between 5,900 and 12,000.
Depending on the final number of buildings in scope, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) estimates it would cost between £30m and £62m to inspect all buildings that may require remedial work. This at a time when many services face real-terms budget cuts
The NFCC also complained of fragmented and inconsistent funding, with existing schemes often covering only cladding, leaving other serious defects unaddressed.
It also highlighted staffing issues, with fewer than 30 fully competent fire engineers in English fire and rescue services and the roles taking years to train.
NFCC chair Phil Garrigan, said: “The Grenfell Tower fire was a national tragedy that exposed fundamental flaws in how we design, build, manage and regulate our homes. Fire and rescue services have played a vital role in making buildings safer, but enforcement alone cannot fix a broken system.
“Eight years on, progress is not where it should be. We must tackle the root causes – fragmented oversight, weak regulation, and chronic gaps in workforce, funding and data. Fire risk must be embedded into every stage of building safety, not left to emergency response.”
The position statement recommended the development of a construction skills strategy, an urgent review of building regulations guidance, and a clarification of recently introduced enforcement powers.
It also said funding should be kept under review to make sure it covers both internal and external defects, without passing costs to leaseholders, and urged the full implementation of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 2 recommendations.
The NFCC’s intervention came in the days after the Building Safety Regulator published its latest batch of statistics on building control.
The figures showed that Gateway 2 determinations had hit an all-time high of 209 across all application types during August.
They also demonstrated the increasing role of the innovation unit, introduced in an effort to speed up the approval process. The unit is now managing 27 new build applications - a total of 6,192 housing units.
According to the regulator, the majority of applications being handled by the unit are meeting or exceeding the 12-week service level agreement for processing applications.
The regulator also set out a timetable for clearing the accumulated backlog at gateway 2, expanding on plans announced at Housing Today’s Building the Future conference earlier this month.
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