Grenfell: Building a Disaster- Ep 6: Value Engineering

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast

BBC

News

4.8 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Grenfell resident Ed Daffarn first heard about the multimillion pound refurbishment of the tower, he welcomed it. The estate had, in his view, become increasingly run down in recent years.

But as the refurbishment progressed, he says residents felt their voices weren’t heard. Meanwhile architects and contractors selected materials which would burn easily in a fire.

Kate looks at how cost-cutting and a race to the bottom in the construction industry had devastating consequences for the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.

Presenter: Kate Lamble Producer: Josephine Casserly Production coordinator: Janet Staples Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones Story consultant: Simon Maybin Editor: Penny Murphy

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was a very friendly, radio, podcasts.
0:05.4	It was a very friendly, open community, and on each landing there were six flats,
0:12.0	so you kind of couldn't help but get to know immediately your six neighbours.
0:18.6	Ed Daffan lived in Grenfell Tower for 16 years. He since had to start again, make a new
0:25.0	home. But he misses his old community, bumping into neighbours while waiting for the lifts,
0:32.9	which were often broken. And there you would naturally get to meet your neighbours, complaining about the same old, same old.
0:39.5	When Ed moved into the West London Tower Block in 2001, Grenfell was pretty well maintained.
0:45.8	But he describes the following years as a period of managed decline.
0:49.9	So buildings which would have, for example, like mould and damp on the outside of them, let alone on the inside.
0:58.0	So when you first hear that this refurbishment is going to take place, does any part of you welcome what they would say is a multi-million pound investment?
1:05.9	Definitely. I think that would probably be welcomed by pretty much everyone in the building.
1:11.5	It was during this refurbishment that the outside of Grenfell Tower was fitted with combustible
1:16.8	cladding and insulation, materials which flames began to spread through rapidly on the 14th of
1:22.9	June 2017.
1:26.7	This is the story of a fire which killed 72 people.
1:31.4	A fire both foreseeable and preventable.
1:34.7	And what it tells us about the people and policies meant to protect us.
1:39.7	I'm Kate Lamble from BBC Radio 4.
1:43.0	This is Grenfell, building a disaster.
1:47.8	Episode 6, value engineering.
1:53.2	We were descending on the plane in the very early morning.
1:58.7	I think it was Harpath by 6 o'clock.
	...

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