Alok Sharma has responded - but he must be joking!

Firstly, thanks to all who joined us last week and got us up over 100,000 signatures. It helped get us coverage in Inside Housing. But we've now also had a response from Alok Sharma (Housing Minister), and it reveals how our government doesn't want to acknowledge its own failures, and responsibility for Grenfell. Here is an extract from Mr Sharma's letter: "In relation to the specific recommendations in the Lakanal House Coroners report, updated guidance on Fire Safety in Purpose Built Flats was developed by DCLG and the LGA following the Lakanal house fire of 2009 and published in Summer 2011. This provided detailed advice on "Stay Put" and "get out and stay out" policies, and clear guidance on undertaking Fire Risk Assessments. The Coroner also recommended that DCLG encourages providers of housing in high rise residential buildings containing multiple domestic premises to consider the retro-fitting of sprinkler systems. The Department had already written to social landlords in April 2010 encouraging just such action." Crucially Mr Sharma's letter implies that these actions were taken before the Lakanal inquest was completed in 2013. We can assert from this that they made no new learnings from that inquest, in spite of it being widely well received. One could reasonably assume from this that they will similarly take no significant guidance from the Grenfell Inquiry. His statement also highlights that DCLG is convinced that it did all that it could do in relation to preventing a fire at Grenfell. We all know this is untrue, because, for starters, the fire assessments done were inadequate, and the message to residents on what to do in the event of a fire were grossly unclear. I would ask that you tweet Mr Sharma (@aloksharma_rdg) to tell him you are not satisfied. You can also email him (Alok.Sharma@communities.gsi.gov.uk) to let him know that 100,000 people cannot be disregarded, and that his letter was an insult to what we believe is important - the future safety of all those in tower blocks. I will be forwarding his response on to those at Grenfell, so they are aware of the kind of message they are likely to receive from our central government.