Meeting of the Parliament 14 May 2024
One month from today, 14 June, will mark seven years since the Grenfell tower fire, which claimed the lives of 72 people. That it has taken so long for the Parliament to pass a cladding remediation bill into law is something that we all need to reflect on. That it has taken so long—three years—since the Scottish Government received the means, through Barnett consequentials, to start tackling this crisis in public safety is something that the Government and the new First Minister must reflect on and act upon, because there has been a failure of political leadership here. The more time we take to carry out remediation, the more we are knowingly exposing the people who send us to this Parliament to extreme risk of harm. It cannot be right that the UK Government has completed work on almost 800 buildings in England and the Government of Wales has done so on 37 buildings whereas, in Scotland, only one tower block, on one site—Glasgow Harbour—has had dangerous cladding removed and only one block on one site has had any mitigation work carried out at all when more than 100 buildings in Scotland are affected.
Let us consider a historical comparison. On 16 May 1968, four people died when one corner of a 23-storey block of flats collapsed after a gas explosion in east London. Ronan Point caught the attention of an entire nation. By August 1968, all large-panel, system-built blocks over six storeys had been appraised and an inquiry had been set up. Remedial action was taken straight away. Gas supplies were cut off until all affected buildings were fixed, remedied and remediated. In under two years, new building regulations were passed, which became enforceable from 1971.
Over half a century later, and a quarter of a century since this Parliament was established, why have we been so slow? The values that should have guided us are straightforward enough. Public safety needs to come before profit. The common good needs to come before private gain. I would add that we need a bit more common ownership and a bit less corporate ownership of housing.
It is a basic human right that people feel safe in their homes, yet the cold facts tell us something different. Forty per cent of the disabled people who lived in Grenfell tower died that night in 2017. A quarter of all the children who lived there died in Grenfell tower that night. The lives of all those who died were equal, were precious and are still mourned. Justice for them and their families has still not been served.
I finish by saying to the minister that the bill is not simply about the fabric of buildings; it is about the fabric of our society; it is about disability rights; it is about children’s rights; it is about human rights. I put the minister on a warning that, if the Government does not provide political leadership and provide it with a renewed sense of urgency, it will be denying the rights of many, including those living day in and day out under the extremes of acute stress; it will be ignoring the unequal burden of those very real risks; and it will be wilfully disregarding some fundamental inequalities that still lie at the core of our society.
We cannot allow such social irresponsibility, such moral evasion and such political weakness to deflect us from the urgent and decisive action that we need to take. So, Parliament will pass this bill today, but the Government—the Executive—needs to act, and it needs to do so with principle, with purpose and with potency.
16:45