187 The Housing Ministry
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast
BBC
4.8 • 627 Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2022
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the Inquiry heard about the work culture in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and how Richard Harral, the Head of Technical Policy, was left feeling angry, frustrated and so “deeply ashamed” that he quit three years into the role. The Inquiry also heard from Sir Ken Knight, the government’s former Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor, who was asked why he didn’t react sooner to a tower block fire in 2009. And Dennis Davis, the Executive Officer of the Fire Sector Federation, concluded that “fire safety is often perceived as a burden”. Presenter: Kate Lamble Producers: Sharon Hemans and Kristiina Cooper Researcher: Marcia Veiga Studio Mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Hugh Levinson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.1 | Hello and welcome to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast with me, Kate Lamble. |
| 0:09.8 | This week, anger, frustration and exhaustion. |
| 0:13.2 | A civil servant revealed the pressures he was under |
| 0:15.3 | and helped building regulations were last in the queue. |
| 0:18.3 | I think that psychologically we would just beaten up, frankly. |
| 0:25.7 | I just think we were not confident. |
| 0:29.3 | We were stretched. |
| 0:31.9 | Richard Haral said he was deeply ashamed of his part in the tragedy. |
| 0:35.8 | I hope that we can learn key lessons about the regulatory culture we have in this |
| 0:43.8 | culture. |
| 0:45.6 | I hope that we can learn about the need to temper our obsession with innovation |
| 0:51.1 | and the predominance of economic theory over more pragmatic human |
| 0:57.8 | concerns. Let's get started with the evidence then. In 2009 there was a fire in Lacknell |
| 1:03.5 | House, a 14-story tower block in South London. It's been described by the London Fire Brigade |
| 1:09.3 | as a unique fire. It's certainly one of the London Fire Brigade as a unique fire. |
| 1:14.0 | It's certainly one of the worst in peacetime London. |
| 1:18.7 | Flames spread to the external wall of the building and six people were killed. |
| 1:22.6 | Sir Ken Knight was the government's chief fire and rescue advisor at the time. |
| 1:28.3 | A former London Fire Brigade Commissioner, he was in fact the first person to hold the post, created in 2007 and intended to bridge the gap between English fire services and government. |
| 1:34.6 | Soon after Lacknell House, the Secretary of State for Communities and the local government, |
| 1:38.8 | John Denham, asked Ken Knight to produce an independent overview of the investigation into the fire. |
... |
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