The external cladding attached to every single tower block tested so far has been deemed to have failed to meet expected fire safety criteria. Can this really be true ? According to the chairman of the Local Government Association, it actually indicates that there is something wrong with the testing arrangements.
On radio and television this morning, Lord Porter of Spalding has expressed serious reservations about the testing, suggesting that the 'experts' who have been advising the government have got things badly wrong. It seems that, following their advice, the testing has concentrated on testing the flammability of one particular component of the cladding rather than testing whole panels and the material which sits between the cladding and the exterior of the building itself.
Given that the failure rate from testing is 100%, does Lord Porter have a point ? Is it really likely that every local authority in the country has been negligent and penny-pinching in this respect, ignoring safety to safe a few coppers ? Is it likely that every single local authority has employed fire safety, health and safety, builders and building safety experts who have all been equally negligent and incompetent ?
It seems to me that the answer to these questions is most unlikely to be 'Yes'; what seems far more likely is that, in their panic to be seen to be 'doing something' bout the Grenfell Tower disaster, the government has been bamboozled by 'experts' and exploited by those who now expect to make large amounts of money from replacing all of the existing cladding on our tower blocks.
Political decisions made in haste and under pressure are rarely right and it seems that this one has simply proved the point.
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