This Tory government has still not learned the lessons of Grenfell

The Tories released their manifesto over the weekend. On fire safety, as well as everything else, it was completely insufficient. There was only one mention of “firefighters”, and that was in reference to increasing sentences for people who attack emergency workers. On building safety, there were vague commitments to “continue to work with industry, housing associations and individuals to ensure every home is safe and secure” and a promise to “support high rise residential residents with the removal of unsafe cladding”. This, quite simply, isn’t good enough.

Labour has committed to: recruiting over 5,000 new firefighters; establishing a Fire & Rescue College to train new recruits; a 5% pay rise for firefighters followed by above-inflation year-on-year pay rises; a £1bn fire safety fund for fitting sprinklers and other fire safety measures in social housing; mandatory buildings standards, inspected by trained Fire and Rescue safety officers and enforced replacement of dangerous Grenfell-style cladding; among many other new measures.

The Tory manifesto is completely negligent, especially in light of the block of student flats in Bolton, which only a fortnight ago was engulfed by flames. Several students were hospitalised, and it took several hours for the building to be fully evacuated. Luckily, nobody was killed, which is also a testament to the professionalism and bravery of Greater Manchester firefighters – but their bravery should never have been needed.

Two and a half years after 72 people lost their lives at Grenfell, it is appalling – though unsurprising – that this Tory government has done far too little to make residents in large buildings safe in their homes, with hundreds of buildings still featuring combustible cladding.

In response to the Grenfell fire, I worked with colleagues in the European parliament to insert clauses into the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive, requiring all new buildings to have adequate fire safety measures. Those measures were passed last year and came into effect earlier this year. UK legislation must then be updated to take account of new EU regulations. My worry is that this Tory government, with its intention to pull us out of the EU with either Boris Johnson’s deeply damaging Brexit deal or no deal at all, has every intention of reneging on its duty to implement these new fire safety measures.

I also worked with partner organisations to organise and host the first comprehensive EU Fire Safety week. Held last week, from November 18th to 21st, it represented a collaboration between the European Fire Safety Alliance, the EU Fire Officers’ Association, the Modern Building Alliance, bringing together experts from all parts of the fire and building industries. The first day saw the launch of a new photography exhibition celebrating survivors of fires and their amazing journeys – the exhibition is entitled Marks of Pride and Beauty. These images show the bravery and resolve of people who have been affected by fire, but also serve as reminders of the need to improve fire safety for everyone.

It was a great honour to present the inaugural EU Fire Safety Award to Frederiksborg Fire & Rescue Service of Denmark for their project ‘Firefighers Plus’, which offers high-quality training and support to firefighters across the world on how to use their position as role models to promote fire safety and prevention among the most vulnerable groups. They were pleased to receive their trophy and I hope their work serves as an inspiration to other forward-thinking fire services and fire prevention experts.

But all of the nominated projects built social cohesion, which was reminiscent of the community safety programmes of Merseyside in the 1990s, which was a pioneering Fire Service under a Labour Fire Authority and one of the first to prioritise a community prevention model of firefighting. The other nominated projects included children’s education about fire safety and in helping to keep elderly people safe in their own homes through the use of sensors that are linked to their family members’ houses. All of these initiatives would have been worthy winners and the ideas they presented are worthy of rolling out across the EU.

Labour MEPs will continue to fight for fire safety regulations on the use of combustible materials, effective means of warning and escape, and sprinkler systems as standard. These measures will at the very least allow EU27 residents to benefit from better fire safety and more secure housing standards. But for UK residents, under a Tory government, we face missing out on what should be basic measures. Two years on, this Tory government has still not learned the lessons of Grenfell. We need a Labour government, which has made tackling fire safety a priority and will implement Labour’s EU fire safety legislation fully.