Leaseholders: Safety Remediation Costs

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 4th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I declare an interest as vice-chair of the All-Party Group on Fire Safety and Rescue and as a vice-president of the LGA. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Stunell on securing this important debate.

I start by agreeing with him and my noble friend Lord Shipley about the need for affordable, safe and green housing. Homes built for lifetime occupation also need to be part of it, ones which can easily and cheaply be adapted for disabled and elderly residents. It says much about the current large property companies that they regularly refuse to build to these standards, although Habinteg tells us that average new-build costs are just a handful of thousands of pounds, whereas adaptations in later life can cost 10 times that amount, as well as the costs of people having to leave their beloved homes and move into care homes. This also says much about who is currently in the driving seat on standards and regulations: it is not the Government or local government, but the builders. There is now evidence of the system being abused, as outlined by the noble Earl, Lord Lytton.

The Grenfell Tower fire happened in June 2017. As we know, 72 people lost their lives. The very moving “Grenfell: The Untold Story” documentary on Channel 4 took us step by step through the concerns of residents during the obviously mismanaged updating works, the night of the fire, and the problems they have had since in other accommodation. For those who have never been present at a fire, it was pretty terrifying. I speak as someone who has been; as part of my job as a stage manager, I had to get an entire audience out of a theatre that caught fire. It is pretty frightening as the smoke rolls towards you.

Far too many blocks are excluded from government assistance, as outlined by a number of noble Lords, including my noble friend Lord Stunell, despite the Government offering some billions of pounds to “end the cladding scandal”. Sitting behind the large growth in flats recently has been the need to increase the number of homes, especially in the greater south-east and around our larger cities and conurbations across the UK. Large numbers of flats and apartments, many high-rise, have been built over the last decade, which are essential. Many more are needed. But the financial structures, as outlined by noble Lords, have also exacerbated the problems of leaseholders facing large bills for cladding.

This Government’s obsession with home ownership has meant that, for many young people, finding that deposit and part ownership have enabled them to get on to the property ladder. But neither they nor their funders understood that these homes were being built to unsafe standards, signed off by a less than independent inspection process, which has now resulted in them facing extraordinarily large bills for remediation and, prior to remediation, the cost of 24-hour walking warden services.

I will spend a short time on the liabilities of the construction sector. The major builders say that, for those buildings completed after the standard 10-year structural defect warranty, they and their insurers can wash their hands of any liability. However, most structural defect warranties assume that the contractors have built to building standards and complied with the building inspection rules of the day. It is now evident, way beyond the chilling evidence at the Grenfell inquiry, that the short cuts that too many of these companies, and their contractors and suppliers, took have resulted in unsafe buildings with dangerous cladding never designed for these blocks, which act, in effect, as installed firelighters.

As a member of the All-Party Group for Fire Safety and Rescue, I have watched the evidence given by cladding manufacturers at the Grenfell inquiry. Managers of cladding firms, granted immunity under the terms of the inquiry, explained how they deliberately used the wrong cladding—and cladding certificates—for these buildings. Clerks of works at the site, at best, took their words at face value; in the worst cases, some inspectors clearly turned blind eyes. That immunity was a high price to pay but at least we are now getting to the real root of the problem: a broken building and inspection system.

Three years ago, the APPG even heard of one tower block, not in London, where all the non-fire-compliant front doors to the flats were removed and replaced with compliant doors for one week, to the utter bemusement of the residents. After the building was inspected, the old doors went up again. Whistleblowers have been saying for the past few years that many bad practices had already started since the relaxation of the inspection regime.

In any other industry, local government, the Government, construction and financial services industry bodies, and their insurers would have got together to talk through how to manage this crisis. Banks, building societies and housing associations will also need support if they are to find the resources to help them round their rules, so that they can help people who have mortgages or leases with them in these buildings with cladding.

In any other industry, freeholders would have sued the building companies and their insurers to protect the leaseholders. Instead, too many freeholders have turned to leaseholders to pay. Other noble Lords have talked about the “polluter pays” principle. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, that there will also need to be other structures for payment. I like the idea, as others have said, of an extra levy to provide for the £10-billion and £5-billion holes in the system.

In any other industry, those who falsified construction certificates, especially if relating to cladding, would have been interviewed by the police. Falsifying cladding safety certificates, and inspection works in this instance, have put hundreds of thousands of leaseholders and their families at high risk of fire, of damage to their properties and of their injury or death.

However, this is not any other industry. In 2019, property tycoons gave the Conservatives more than £11 million. There were questions about cash for access and a dinner at which the then Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, was sat next to a large potential donor. I know that he left, but the point is that it was very uncomfortable. Despite the Select Committee in the other place recommending that the Government do all they can to protect leaseholders from these costs, instead, the reality is that leaseholders are facing bills so large that some are higher than the value of the property they have bought. They cannot sell with that liability. Their mortgagors are equally stuck because their rules are also strict.

There are 500,000 homes facing a tornado of problems. It is time that the Government led a proper round of emergency discussions with all the parties and not just for high-rise buildings of over 12 metres. This arbitrary height definition has no place when cladding remains dangerous. However, what needs to happen first is that the building sector, especially large construction companies, must agree its share of the immediate payment of remediation costs. I hear the Minister saying, “But we’ve told freeholders not to pass charges on to leaseholders”. Until the Government own this issue and start to strong-arm the various bodies to take responsibility, this will not change; it should, but will not. If there is no change, will the Minister agree that a class action of leaseholders against the constructors should be funded by the public purse? In the meantime, will the Government take other actions to help resolve these issues?

Gypsies and Travellers

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 4th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I think that is what we have. We are working with local authorities and encouraging them to assess their local need. We have seen, through this policy, an increase in site provision and we feel that responsibility rests in local government. As someone who spent 20 years in local government, I do not think everything should be directed from Whitehall.

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, the Minister has just said that there has been an increase in authorised encampment pitches. The reality is that there has been an overall 8.4% decrease of pitches on local authority Traveller sites over the last decade. There has been an increase in unauthorised encampment sites not run by local authorities. It seems extraordinary, at a time when this Government propose to criminalise Gypsy and Traveller families who cannot find authorised encampment pitches, that they are not doing more than “encourage” local authorities to fulfil their duties. Please will the Government reconsider that and ensure that local authorities provide enough sites for the community?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I can provide only the statistics that I have been given, which are that since 2010 there has been an increase of 1,291 new affordable permanent pitches, and in the January 2020 Traveller caravan count there were 354 transit pitches, of which 138 were vacant transit pitches. We recognise the need to increase supply, which is why we are providing the affordable homes grant that local authorities can bid into. I also point out that there is a very high bar for criminality—members of the community committing actual harm—before criminal proceedings begin.

Inclusive Society

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Wednesday 14th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my interests as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and a recent former trustee of UNICEF UK.

I start by congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, on securing this important debate and Members of your Lordships’ House on their excellent, wide-ranging contributions. The noble Baroness referred to the Beveridge report and the Sunday Times editorial. I always think that we should go back to John Stuart Mill and his liberal safety net, to which noble Lords have referred.

My noble friend Lord Beith reminded us that crises often last longer than we expect. He rightly focused on the use during the pandemic of powers that seem to be creeping into our lives afterwards, with an impact on our human rights. Freedom remains the right of all our citizens. The noble Baroness, Lady Fox, also reminded us of the importance of that. I disagree with her views about LTNs and creating new ways of travel, but LTNs should not be made in isolation. We should also increase public transport, with buses and minibuses in those communities as well as wider pavements for pedestrians and wheelchair users.

My noble friend Lady Tyler reminded us that the World Bank has put us on notice to make our society more resilient in future from whatever shocks of whatever nature. The noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, linked to the United Nations’ warning of the explosion of inequalities across the globe. She and the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, reminded us of the difficulties facing the economy after needing to spend at such high levels to manage the crisis and that this is likely to continue. We say that austerity may look attractive to get the books back in order but, for all the reasons that most other speakers have given, balancing society is as important as balancing the economy and we may have to bear this for some time longer.

The noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, rightly pointed out that we need a more joined-up government plan. Where is the big plan for children—a theme much repeated this afternoon? The noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, was right to say that the pandemic is not a leveller but in fact has highlighted every weakness in our society. The noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, warned us that if we do not tackle social policies now, the current inequalities will grow rapidly. Virtually every speaker has made that point on an area that they feel strongly about. However, until we have a strategic overview that is grasped by government, it will not become a shared purpose for us as a nation.

The whole-life approach is absolutely a post-pandemic tool. The noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, reminded us of the Marmot review, which ran in parallel with Hurricane Maria. The effects of the pandemic on our society will still be emerging for some time. Issues such as the missing of serious, life-threatening illnesses because of disruption to the NHS for more than a year, with the subsequent mortality rates, will shock us all. My noble friend Lady Tyler said that the Lords Public Services Committee’s report needed a government strategy to be published. Can the Minister tell us when that will happen?

The treatment of paid and unpaid carers over the past year, during the pandemic, has highlighted a problem with social care. Many of our unpaid carers are saving the country billions, but at what cost to them, their safety and their families?

Much has been said about food banks, the cost of renting properties and cliff edges for those living in or on the edge of poverty. The noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, spoke of food rights for everyone. She talked about the need to provide a free, nutritious meal to all schoolchildren and said that these facilities should also be used for other services. There are some innovative projects going on, particularly in Cornwall, where this is beginning to happen, such as with the use of meals-on-wheels services in local school dining halls.

The universal credit £20 uplift must be made permanent. But perhaps now is the time we need to pilot a universal basic income, as happened in California, where local mayor Michael Tubbs, the then mayor of Stockton, introduced it in 2019 with astonishing results.

A child poverty strategy is definitely needed, and well beyond education. Youth services need to be restored. They have been cut for far too many years. Delays to access to children’s specialist health services, especially those such as speech and language therapy and child and adolescent mental health services, where there are often extremely long waiting lists, impact severely on all our children’s lives.

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester rightly set out the important role that faith communities have played in this pandemic. They are key to helping to strengthen the third sector as we come out of the pandemic. As someone who normally sits in a church pew, I have been delighted with the streaming of services online and the many steps that different faith organisations have taken to bring their services and activities into people’s homes, such as talking to elderly people who have seen virtually no one face to face for months with telephone trees to make sure that that contact is made regularly. At one church, the audio-visual team copies the services on to discs and hand delivers them to the elderly members of the congregation for whom YouTube is a step too far.

The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, talked about nudge theory behavioural scientists and had some excellent proposals that we should learn from for the future. Let us use those techniques to reduce obesity and diabetes, as well as infectious diseases.

The noble Lord, Lord Pendry, talked about the loneliness of many, especially the elderly, during the pandemic. We humans are social beings and we have a stark reminder that each of us needs to reach out to those we know—and to those we may not know—who may be lonely.

The noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, spoke movingly about the problems of young girls and boys and of the inappropriate and harmful websites that have also been another problem in lockdown. I am afraid that is cyberbullying, and that also needs to be tackled when we see the online harms Bill. The noble Baroness, Lady Miller, reminded us of the important link between literacy and lifespan. Lack of literacy equals exclusion. The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, laid out very clearly why we should implement the UN charter on the rights of the child.

On the Sewell report, I am afraid I disagree with the noble Lords, Lord Dobbs and Lord Farmer. I understand where they are coming from but until every member of our society—particularly those who have protected characteristics—can say that they are not discriminated against, we as a society have to remove those barriers and keep working on it. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, that the data does not lie. The noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, and the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, spoke movingly of what needs to happen, not just to shift that data but also the culture of those who are not equal, whether through gender, race, disability or social inequality.

The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, set out the importance of sport and physical activity as part of the recovery as well as mentioning the volunteering roles that sports and gym staff took during the pandemic.

Homelessness has become a real problem over the last year. We must find better mechanisms to get the homeless into accommodation, especially single, young, disadvantaged people and vulnerable single, young people coming from care. We have a national problem now with rent levels and lack of security in the rented sector. The Government need to act to make changes here.

The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, spoke of building back greener. Sustainable housing is absolutely essential, and it is not just about insulation and energy but also building for a lifetime. All that is needed is an extra £2,000 spent on a new build now with slightly wider doorways and the underlying plumbing to make it easier to turn to a bathroom into a wet room for somebody who cannot get into a bath later in life. When will those appear in the Part 3 planning regulations?

The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, told us how disabled people have fared during the pandemic and how things for which they have fought for years are now normal for everyone, such as working from home. Let us learn those lessons and not just let them be a temporary issue during the pandemic.

The noble Baroness also spoke about long Covid, which at last is being taken seriously by the medical profession. For many of us with underlying conditions who have to live with chronic fatigue and other autoimmune disease problems, what people with long Covid are facing is not news, but a large number of new people stranded by long Covid and facing the medical and employment problems resulting from this serious condition might be helpful as it will provide the reset that we need in the way that we approach chronic illness. My noble friend Lady Jolly spoke movingly for those with learning disabilities living in supported accommodation and about the trials of being separated even further by the pandemic. The noble Lord, Lord Touhig, set out the problems faced by autistic people trying to get into work. It is not just autistic people; most disabled people find it very difficult to get into work. The care Green Paper is long overdue, and the Government must find mechanisms for funding it properly and imaginatively, because it is vital that these citizens deserve the standards that we just take for granted.

There has been considerable lack of support for disabled people in the pandemic in access to basic and essential services, PPE for them and their carers, and do not get me started on the do not resuscitate orders. Those wanting a children’s Minister need to know that there is real worry in the disabled community that the Minister for Disabled People, Justin Tomlinson MP, is totally invisible, so I warn that a title alone is not enough and there must be funding and support for any such Ministers, whether for disabled people or children, to deliver their roles.

My noble friend Lady Walmsley made a very important point about social workers working remotely regarding children at risk. It is vital that we get services back to normal, even if it is a new normal, as soon as possible. The most vulnerable children in our society deserve that risk assessment and support.

The noble Baroness, Lady Eaton, talked about the importance of devolution with the local settlement and we agree with that, but I am looking forward to the Government delivering it. On business, my noble friend Lord Razzall supports more localism. The power and funding of local government has diminished over the past four decades, and that must be remedied. Tinkering with council areas, unitary bodies and elected mayors is not going to change services after cuts in front-line funding. As the noble Lord, Lord Bhatia, outlined, public health and social care reforms are urgently needed. One part of the 2012 health reforms that worked is the vital role of local directors of public health. Let us learn the lesson of how that has worked and take it forward.

I shall end on a point about international aid. My noble friend Lord Bruce outlined the problems of the cuts. It is important that we listen to UNICEF and other organisations. UNICEF delivers the largest number of vaccines in the world year on year. The work it does will support the WHO, which tells us that not one country is safe until we are all safe. That is true for Covid-19, but it is also true for our worldwide society.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 1 Report

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety Rescue Group. Our APPG is very active and has been making recommendations and questioning Ministers—including the noble Lord, Lord Bourne, when he was Minister—since the Lakanal fire in 2009. I also co-chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Victims of Crime and I am a former trustee of UNICEF UK.

First, I pay tribute from the Liberal Democrat Benches to the Grenfell survivors and the bereaved families. Their determination to be heard and to achieve justice for those who died and whose lives have been changed forever by the Grenfell Tower disaster is humbling. I say to them that we too will not rest until changes are made that mean another disaster like Grenfell will not happen. We put the Minister and any future Government on notice that, while we welcome their acceptance of Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s recommendations in part one, we will push for action on the many parts that can happen swiftly, especially those that do not require primary or secondary legislation.

I also note that firefighters have been praised significantly for their individual behaviour—there were many acts of heroism. The systemic failures of the fire service must not take away from the exceptional performance of individual firefighters at the scene.

We also need to note that, once again, our media has behaved badly. Grenfell United, the group representing survivors and the bereaved, has rightly said that it was “unacceptable” that people learned findings through the media, without having the opportunity to first read the report. What on earth was the Daily Telegraph thinking? Shame on you.

I wish to focus on some of the specific fire service-related problems but will first briefly cover some of the other key failures that contributed to the deaths of so many people. First, in report after report over the decades, coroners and chairs of inquiries have talked about the inability of our public services to work together in an emergency. The inquiry reports that the fire commander, the Met Police commander and ambulance control all declared major incidents at different times and were not co-ordinated. Surely, at such an incident there should be one senior commander in charge of the entire incident, working together. We know that it can be done. In terrorist incidents such as the Westminster and London Bridge attacks, we have seen examples of good practice. Why did that not happen in this case? Sir Martin also comments that Kensington and Chelsea Council and the TMO were not prepared for any such emergency—and that is before we even get to the appalling issue of the lack of checks on the fire protection for the building. Fire doors that did not work and refurbishment works that destroyed compartmentation—which is absolutely key if any “stay put” policy is to work—meant that the key role of public services in supporting emergency services just did not happen. For disabled people having to wait in refuge areas, to have failing fire doors and no PEEPs—personal emergency evacuation plans—is very serious.

Secondly, the treatment of the survivors and bereaved families by the various bodies that should have been there to help was woeful. Reading the report of Inquest, the charity that provides expertise on state-related deaths, was absolutely grim. As a former trustee of UNICEF, I know that in major emergencies around the world NGOs come together to work together and respond, not just during the emergency but to support survivors long after. Through the UN and other bodies, the protocols for working in such emergencies are well known, well founded and followed. Each NGO knows what it is to do at each stage of the emergency and in the aftermath, and who leads at each stage. The UK Government fund many of these NGOs, yet Government after Government have failed to address our own problem here for our own disasters. This just is not good enough; the Government must take a lead in changing the attitude, not just through legislation but by leading by example.

On some of the specific fire service-related issues, it is just extraordinary that there was no LFS contingency plan for the evacuation of Grenfell Tower. Following the Lakanal House fire coroner’s inquest in 2013, our APPG was aware of exchanges of letters between the coroner, the Secretary of State and the London Fire Brigade, and this kind of issue was supposedly satisfactorily resolved. What follow-up and monitoring have taken place since 2013, and what is the role of Her Majesty’s inspectorate of fire services to ensure that such key plans are in place?

The LFB maintains an operational database and has a risk assessment policy, accessible by all firefighters at any such incident. However, the entry for Grenfell Tower contained almost no information of any use to an incident commander called to a fire, and some information was out of date as it did not take account of the refurbishment and was therefore wrong. In addition, what about the fire survival guidance calls being communicated to the incident commanders, arrangements relating to the internal spread of the fire, and deficiencies in command and control, where senior officers arrived but failed to give sufficient practical support or inform themselves quickly enough, given that the spread of the fire was so visible? All these issues had plans in place—or should have—which should have been inspected by the HMI of fire services in its yearly inspection for each service.

Finally, I mention automatic fire sprinkler protection. We now have five years of compelling evidence from real fires in the UK that automatic fire sprinkler protection controlled or extinguished fires where they operated on 100% of occasions in flats. A single fire death in a working sprinkler building designed for the purpose anywhere in the UK is an extremely rare occurrence. Multiple deaths are unheard of. We must implement sprinklers in high-rise residential buildings. As others have said repeatedly in this House, sprinklers in Grenfell would have changed everything.

--- Later in debate ---

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

There is a lot of detail in what I want to say; I will come on to cladding. I also point out to the noble Lord that much of what we are doing must be regarded as part of a holistic approach so, on timetables, there may not be one particular date by which everything is done. It is a very complex process.

Soon after the fire, in July 2017, the Government commissioned Dame Judith Hackitt to conduct a review of building and fire safety. Noble Lords will recall that we have already agreed to take forward the recommendations of Dame Judith’s report in full as the basis for regulatory reforms in building and fire safety. Our comprehensive building safety programme, announced in the recent Queen’s Speech in the form of a Bill, will bring about a radically new building and fire safety system by: establishing a new regulatory framework; creating greater accountability and responsibility; issuing sanctions to tackle irresponsible behaviour by those responsible for buildings; and giving residents a stronger voice.

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham referred to social housing. It is important that we improve quality and quantity, with a beneficial knock-on effect on health. We have committed to taking forward the social housing White Paper at pace. It will set out proposals for the standards that we set for social homes. We remain committed to increasing the supply of social housing, committing more than £9 billion as part of our affordable homes programme and delivering more than 250,000 homes by 2022.

Of course, we have had to take urgent steps in the interim to ensure that people are safe today. Much of this work has been around cladding. First, we have banned the use of combustible materials on high-rise homes and identified all buildings over 18 metres with unsafe ACM cladding.

The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, asked whether gas should no longer be used in high-rise buildings. It is an interesting point. I cannot answer her question easily today, but I can say that the Government have signalled their intention to prohibit the use of fossil fuels such as gas in new homes by 2025 for reasons of environmental protection.

Secondly, we have established a comprehensive programme to oversee the remediation of unsafe ACM cladding, providing £600 million of funding to support this work. My noble friend Lord Young and the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, asked about the funding; it is beyond the £200 million that the Government are putting forward for private residential high-rise remediation. Both noble Lords asked what would happen if the costs go beyond this. I can confirm that the money set aside is an estimate and that plans are in place, should it become necessary, to revisit that estimate.

I am pleased that all social sector residential buildings with ACM cladding either have had the cladding removed, are undergoing work to remove it or, at the very least, have had such work scheduled. We have pushed on every front to ensure that the work is completed quickly, and today only a handful of building owners have yet to confirm their intention to remediate the ACM cladding on their buildings.

We have now completed remediation work on 61 buildings in the social sector, have begun work on a further 81 buildings and are working hard to ensure that remediation is completed on the remaining 16 buildings as soon as possible. My noble friend Lord Young asked about progress on this. As of October, only 10 of the 89 private sector buildings in scope of the fund have yet to engage. We will continue to put pressure on developers and building owners to get on with remediation. In response to a number of questions he raised, I will shortly provide a letter detailing the take-up of the private sector remediation fund and set out a fuller picture of the remediation figures, as well as the responsibilities of leaseholders and freeholders. As the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government made clear yesterday in the other place, there will be consequences for any building owners not making clear progress, including naming and shaming and enforcement action.

Thirdly, interim measures are in place in high-rise buildings with ACM cladding to ensure that all residents remain safe. We are working at pace to review different parts of the building safety regime. We have now completed testing on non-ACM cladding panels and are analysing the results, which will be released in the coming months.

We have recently launched a consultation on the use of sprinklers in all new residential buildings over 18 metres—a point that was raised in the debate. It also seeks responses on evacuation alert systems and improved signage, which was raised by my noble friend Lord Bourne and others. The consultation will close in November. My noble friend Lord Bourne also asked about fire doors. On the advice of the independent expert panel, the Government conducted an investigation and testing programme of glass reinforced plastic composite fire doors, leading to their withdrawal from the market. Following this, the Association of Composite Door Manufacturers has committed to deliver an industry- led remediation plan, which has our full support.

The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, asked about product safety, which was part of my old brief when I worked in the former BIS, now BEIS. In May 2018, an independent investigation into the Whirlpool fridge-freezer involved in Grenfell Tower confirmed that there was no need for further action, and BEIS supports its conclusion that no product recall other than corrective action is required. People who own that particular model can continue to use it as normal. The noble Lord also raised a point about electrical safety checks. Existing legislation already requires landlords to keep electrical installations in safe working order. However, the Government have reviewed the issue and have now committed to introducing mandatory five-yearly electrical safety inspections. I am confident that these steps will help us boost safety and transform the way we build in the future.

We have also been working across government to co-ordinate action on fire safety. First, the newly established fire protection board provides a bridge across the Home Office, my department, MHCLG, local government authorities and the National Fire Chiefs Council. The board will provide greater assurance that fire safety risks in high-rise residential buildings with ACM cladding are being identified, managed and properly recorded. It will oversee an increase in inspections and audits of high-risk buildings, and we have already signalled our commitment to getting this right by pledging £10 million a year. As my right honourable friend the Secretary of State said in September in the other place, he expects,

“all high-rise buildings to have been inspected or assured by the time the new building safety regime is in place, or no later than 2021”.—[Official Report, Commons, 5/9/19; col. 373.]

Secondly, the Home Office has run a call for evidence, alongside MHCLG’s Building a Safer Future consultation, on the fire safety order. This consultation seeks to ensure that the order remains effective and works as a whole with the new regulatory regime and other existing legislation. The call for evidence closed on 31 July and we are now analysing the responses.

Thirdly, the Home Office has established an independent Fire Standards Board, which should not be confused with the FPB, and has provided £1.5 million of funding to support its work. The board is supported by the National Fire Chiefs Council’s Central Programme Office to support continuous improvement of fire and rescue services. The board will be responsible for the development of a high-quality useable framework of professional standards, aligned to the work of the National Fire Chiefs Council and its national initiatives. It is clear from the report’s findings that this Government need to be playing an active role in supporting the sector through the fire reform programme.

In July 2017, the then Home Secretary expanded the remit of HMIC to establish Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. This move sought to highlight areas for continuous improvement of good practice for fire and rescue services and to increase transparency for the communities they serve. The inspectorate has now completed inspections of all 45 FRSs in England and has published reports on 30 of them. We expect reports on the remaining 15 to be published shortly, alongside the inspectorate’s first “state of fire” reports.

[Baroness Brinton]

Does that also include ensuring that all the points that I referred to that used to be covered by inspections are being covered by plans throughout every area of each fire service? It is one thing to do this at a superficial level, but part of the problem appears to be that inspections have not been as detailed as they used to be.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

Yes, I can reassure the noble Baroness on that front and reiterate the point I made earlier about greater joined-up thinking across different agencies and bodies.

Learning from the inspectorate’s reports and the creation of national standards based on the best operational practice will help the LFB and the fire and rescue service as a whole to respond to the issues that the inquiry identified. We expect the NFCC to support services faced with challenging reports to drive improvement and make sure that cross-service learning is happening, which helps to answer the noble Baroness’s question.  

The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and my noble friend Lord Bourne asked about collaboration and co-ordination, and communication within the emergency services. An assurance programme was conducted in 2017 on joint interoperability with more than 100 police, fire and ambulance services. Findings showed that new processes are embedding, and the Home Office is continuing to drive work to embed this programme locally.

The noble Lord, Lord Harris, and others raised the issue of problems with communication between firefighters. Each fire and rescue authority, including the London Fire Brigade, must evaluate local risks and determine its priorities, policies and standards for fire protection and response, including equipment. It does this through an integrated risk management plan. It is for the Mayor of London to set the budget for the London Fire Brigade so that it has the equipment needed to do its work. The Government will work with the fire and rescue services to ensure that lessons are learned from this terrible tragedy.