I REFER to Mr Carter’s letter in the Review of July 19 in defence of an earlier letter from Mr Garnett implying responsibility of Conservative government/s for the housing crisis and recent disasters.

I have difficulty following the logic attempted by Mr Carter that the Grenfell disaster was created by negligence on the part of governments over 30 years weakening the then existing building/fire regulations and design codes leading to the Grenfell disaster.

I shall not attempt to address all the issues raised but concentrate on the points relating to the issue of political negligence implied in Mr Carter’s letter.

To be fair, I am not trying in any sense to be party-political, simply giving my personal take.

While agreeing somewhat with various issues mentioned by Mr Carter relating to government’s privatisation of various agencies involved in building research and regulation, the aims were to simplify complex planning and building regulations to promote housebuilding.

There are advisory committees in the relevant government departments and organisations such as the Building Research Establishment are involved in developing national and international standards and building codes, including UK building regulations.

This is a complex network with many participants including manufac-

turers, construction firms, housing professionals, and others.

Building codes including fire safety are not prescriptive documents but principle statements to be used and expanded where necessary by designers and materials manufacturers who have to use their expertise in applying these in conjunction with building design and industry practices that are constantly evolving.

Whether materials of particular degrees of flammability can be used in buildings depends on the manufacturers having developed suitable designs and designers and contractors verifying their acceptability in their particular application.

Government or local authorities are not building experts and have to rely on the experts from the different agencies and manufacturers playing their parts.

Equally local authorities/housing companies, whether social or open market, need to have effective project managers capable of knitting the complex technical aspects in a cost effective manner.

The fire department has a duty to check that buildings designed and constructed are intrinsically safe and have adequate access and have procedures in the event of a fire.

The inquiry set up following the Grenfell disaster should throw light on the combination of circumstances that lead to the fire and inability of the fire department to control its consequences.

The shortcomings in the local authority to manage the fallout from the disaster and also that in their design and contracting practices have been reported in the media and hopefully the inquiry set up should provide a fuller picture and guidance on future actions.

To repeat my previous comment, lengthy discussion on value for money, cost management and government austerity as causes of the disaster will not lead anywhere.

The Grenfell inferno is definitely not ‘Tragedy Political’.

– Venk Shenoi, Blaisdon.