Government rejects Grenfell Inquiry recommendations on evacuation of buildings as ‘not proportionate’
The government has announced it will not implement critical recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry which called for legal obligations to plan for the evacuation of high-rise buildings and disabled residents in the event of a serious fire.
In a consultation document published today, the Home Office said it does not believe it is “proportionate” to follow the recommendations and will continue to place its faith in ‘stay put’ advice in most buildings.
Instead, it is launching a new consultation on sharing the location of disabled residents with fire services, but will only apply this to buildings known to have serious fire safety issues.
The decision represents a major break from the recommendations of the first phase of the Grenfell Inquiry, which had said all building owners should be required by law develop a ‘plan B’ in case it becomes necessary to implement an evacuation.
This included a recommendation that residents with disabilities should be provided with ‘personal emergency evacuation plans’, or PEEPs, to facilitate their evacuation.
The inquiry found that “many more lives” could have been saved if Grenfell Tower had been evacuated when flames began ripping through the cladding system. It also noted that doing so in the absence of an established plan and without a means of alerting residents posed firefighters with a significant challenge.
It also heard that 15 of the residents unable to evacuate without assistance died in the fire – a much higher fatality rate than any other group.
The government had previously promised to implement the inquiry’s recommendations in full.
However, the Home Office said today, in a long-awaited response to its consultation on the issue, that there were “significant issues” with the “practicality, proportionality and safety” of PEEPS, adding that “we are currently unable to mandate PEEPs in high-rise residential buildings”.
It therefore said it intends to replace the proposal to require evacuation plans and PEEPs with “an alternative package of initiatives”.
