4. 3. Statement: Update Following the Grenfell Tower Fire

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:16 pm on 4 July 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Dawn Bowden Dawn Bowden Labour 3:16, 4 July 2017

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, we spoke this morning about the issues that I raised with you, but can I just say I was very pleased, when I visited the only high-rise tower in my constituency, which is in Merthyr Tydfil, that the cladding on that building is not of the ACM type, but is of the Rockwell type, which means that it is fire retardant and it’s covered by a render finish? The flats there also have sprinklers in every dwelling.

The issues, which I raised with you—I’m very pleased with your response on those because it was a particular concern, when it was raised with me, that companies like BT and Sky can come into a block of flats without the landlord knowing, without their permission, and can drill through fire barriers to install phones and satellite dishes, rendering those fire barriers less effective in the process, and then the landlord has little or no chance of getting those companies to come back and to reinstate. So, I’m very pleased that you are going to look at that. As an absolute minimum, I guess, those companies should be compelled to seek the permission of the landlord to go into that building, and agree with them what the works and the reinstatement of those works should look like.

But the other issue that was also raised with me was those leaseholders, i.e. those people who, under right to buy, have bought units within tower blocks and are not subject to the same conditions that tenants are in terms of notifying what is the building owner how many people are living in that accommodation and whether they store flammable equipment in there, or potentially dangerous equipment like oxygen tanks and so on. Tenants are required to do that, leaseholders are not, and yet they’re in the block and so provide the same kind of potential danger. So, in addition to looking at how these outside companies can come in and drill into the firebreaks and so on, can I ask you, Cabinet Secretary, if you could also look at whether there are ways in which leaseholders can be compelled to disclose to building owners information that they may need to be able to assess a fire risk in that building?