Grenfell fire survivors left out of major safety review after disaster

Officials meet with tower block residents elsewhere, but not those living at the site of the blaze

Mourners leave after attending the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service at St Paul's Cathedral in London (DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Officials conducting a review of UK building regulations prompted by the Grenfell Tower fire have not met with survivors of the disaster, its chair has said.

Dame Judith Hackitt, who is leading the independent assessment, said her team held meetings with tower-block residents in Manchester and elsewhere in London, but not with those who lived at the site of the blaze.

The former health and safety chief has been assessing the adequacy of current guidelines in the wake of the fire, following fears that cuts and improper regulations led to the tower being refurbished with unsafe materials.

The review is independent of – but will feed into – a public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire chaired by Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, which will examine factors other than building regulations.

In an interim report published on Monday, the review found the whole system of building regulation in the UK is "not fit for purpose", saying complex rules and poor enforcement left the system open to abuse.

Dame Judith presented her report to the Communities and Local Government Committee, who questioned her on the findings.

Labour MP Clive Betts asked her whether her team met with tower block residents, rather than only corporate and government stakeholders.

She responded saying she held two "round table meetings" with residents groups and received "some extremely good feedback".

“We held one in Manchester, we held one here in London and both of those were very well attended and we got some very good input from people on what it was like to be in their position," she told the committee.

Questioned by Mr Betts on whether she had spoken to residents of Grenfell Tower, she said: "Not specifically ... although we would have welcomed responses from people and residents from Grenfell."

She said the review wrote to survivors of the disaster on Friday, only three days before the report was published on Monday, to let them know the document was going to be made public.

"We have offered to talk them through it as and when they are ready if they wish to do so," she said.

When Mr Betts asked her to clarify again whether survivors had contributed to the review's interim report, she said: "We don't believe so — unless they fed it in through resident's associations.

"We could not trace specifically those who lived at or near Grenfell Tower."

One of the recommendations in the interim report is that a "clear, quick and effective route for residents to raise concerns and be listened to," must be created.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said on Monday at least 284 high-rise buildings across England are clad with panels unlikely to meet current building regulations.