Grenfell Tower: Regulations introduced after the fire to force building owners to fix serious safety issues are still being ignored

Published

2 months ago

September 3, 2024

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Legal powers introduced since the Grenfell Tower fire to force building owners to fix serious fire safety issues are being ignored, Sky News can reveal.

One of the UK’s first Building Remediation Orders, issued by a judge last year, gave the owners of a block of flats in Bristol six months to fix serious fire safety defects including removing dangerous Grenfell-style insulation. The court’s deadline has now passed and nothing has been done, leaving residents fearful in their homes.

As a major report is published tomorrow to name and shame those responsible for the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower that killed 72 people on 14 June 2017, there are still hundreds of thousands of people living in buildings they know to be unsafe.

Seven years on from the disaster, legislation enacted to end Britain’s building safety crisis has failed to be enforced.

At least 3,280 buildings are known to still have unsafe cladding, with only 949 of those having started works, according to the latest government data.

‘Scary to think about’

“It’s something you think about every day,” says Steph Culpin, 37, who owns a flat on the second floor of the colourful block needing repair in Bristol.

“There are people in the building that might struggle to get out if there’s a fire…the best we’ve got is that a fire hasn’t happened. And that’s scary to think about.”

Ms Culpin bought her two-bedroom flat in Orchard House, a former office building that was extended and converted into 54 flats in 2018, a year after the Grenfell Tower fire.

It wasn’t until 2019 that she and other residents were informed through new fire surveys required post-Grenfell that there was a litany of alarming safety risks.

Flammable material around Ms Culpin’s windows and installed between the two buildings of her block was labelled “high risk”.

And the shock discovery of combustible insulation manufactured by Celotex, one of the firms who gave evidence at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, meant Orchard House was given the lowest fire safety rating available on a five-point scale.

The Building Safety Act, which was drawn up in the wake of the Grenfell fire and took effect in 2023, placed responsibility on building owners to replace defective materials.

But the owner of Orchard House, Stockwood Land 2 Limited, currently run by Amarjit Singh Litt and previously by members of the Litt family, has refused to engage with any of the problems found.

In November 2023, Ms Culpin and a fellow resident became one of only a handful to take their freeholder to court to try to force action.

Orchard House’s owner didn’t attend the court hearing despite the judge ruling they “knew or ought to have known about these proceedings”.

The tribunal ruled in favour of the residents and ordered the owner to carry out the work by June 2024.

However, the deadline came and went, the work has not been done and no one from Stockwood Land 2 Limited has responded to the many attempts to contact them.

“When you talk to somebody that isn’t in this situation, it’s actually really difficult to get across the severity of it and how it makes you feel,” Ms Culpin says. “From a mental health point of view, from a financial point of view.

“Because they just go, ‘surely somebody is going to make sure they do that. Are you sure you’ve spoken to the right people?’ and those are [the] sort of questions that you get and you go, ‘yeah, I’ve knocked on every door we have. And they’re all just shut’.”

Ms Culpin can’t sell the flat because until the work has been done no mortgage lender will approve an application from a buyer.

She is now paying interest on a Help To Buy Loan she cannot pay off.

All government schemes to help fund remedial works have to be agreed upon by the building owners and cannot be instigated by residents.

‘You live with it all the time’

Across the country, there are thousands of examples of buildings where work should have been done but hasn’t because the owners have delayed it or disappeared.

In Birmingham, Paul Baston, 66, lives on the top floor of Liberty Place, a high-rise canal-side development.

Standing on his balcony, the problem is clear. Banned aluminium composite (ACM) cladding covers the outside walls from floor to ceiling.

ACM is the same cladding that was on Grenfell Tower and was immediately forbidden from being used on buildings after the tragedy.

“It is very, very stressful. It’s very worrying. You live with it all the time,” says Mr Baston, who keeps his passport, driving licence, keys and wallet on his bedside table in case he has to evacuate the building in a hurry.

He worries about others in the building with young families or elderly relatives.

“You’ve got to be mindful and be prepared. And this is as prepared as I can be,” he says.

Mr Baston’s building is owned by Lendlease, who told Sky News it plans to carry out replacement work later this year.

‘Half-safe’

In another part of Birmingham, Jim Illingworth, 65, has new cladding which was replaced by his building’s owners under the government’s Building Safety Scheme.

But not all fire risks have been removed.

Internal surveys routinely carried out by mortgage lenders and insurance companies have revealed a design flaw that means fire could still spread rapidly between flats.

Mr Illingworth, who lives in the one-bedroom flat with his wife, says it leaves the building “half-safe”.

Now categorised as just one rating above Ms Culpin in Bristol, his risk is deemed low enough that remedial works are not required.

“According to the government, it’s nice and safe – according to the insurers and the mortgage people, it’s not safe.

“So we’ve got the government saying one thing and the practicality on the ground saying something totally different.”

It means Mr Illingworth is paying three times as much in building insurance compared to when he moved in.

He says there are estate agents who “won’t touch the buildings” due to banks still being reluctant to offer mortgages on the flats.

Recommendations in the final report from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry will focus on the technical aspects of the fire at the west London building “to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again”.

But people across the UK are raising the same warnings and living with the same combustible materials which made up Grenfell Tower, as well as uncovering new fire risks every day.

UK

Five people guilty in case of mistaken-identity double murder of teenage boys

Published

4 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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Five people guilty in case of mistaken-identity double murder of teenage boys

Four teenagers and a 45-year-old man have been found guilty of murdering two boys, aged 15 and 16, who were attacked with machetes in a case of mistaken identity.

The convictions follow a five-week trial at Bristol Crown Court.

The jury heard how Max Dixon and Mason Rist were killed in a case of mistaken identity on 27 January, after being wrongly identified as being responsible for a house attack in the Hartcliffe area of the city earlier that evening.

Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three boys aged 15, 16 and 17 were all on trial each charged with two counts of murder.

As the jury foreman returned the guilty verdicts, none of the defendants showed any reaction from the dock, as they sat impassively and stared straight ahead.

The fatal stabbings in Knowle West lasted just 33 seconds – with both boys suffering what the court heard were “unsurvivable” injuries and “instant severe blood loss”.

Both died in hospital in the early hours of 28 January.

Detective Superintendent Gary Haskins, the case’s senior investigating officer from Avon and Somerset Police, told Sky News that Max and Mason had nothing to do with the house attack.

“Those boys were not known to their attackers, they were best friends, two beautiful children just going about their lives and attacked for no reason whatsoever,” he said.

Much of the prosecution’s case was based on CCTV and doorbell videos, including a camera on Mason’s own house which captured footage of the knife attack against him.

The pair were seen leaving Mason’s home at around 11.15pm and were going for a pizza.

Prosecutor Ray Tully KC told the jury that the boys were set upon by the group who had been travelling in Snook’s Audi Q2.

He said the group were “out for revenge”, “acting as a pack” to hunt down those responsible and “tooled up” with fearsome weapons.

After the attackers fled, Max and Mason were left bleeding in the street.

The investigation involved more than 230 police officers and staff – with thousands of pieces of evidence analysed.

Hundreds mourned victims at school

The teenage victims were in year 11 together at the Oasis Academy John Williams secondary school and were preparing to sit their GCSEs this summer.

The school’s headteacher Victoria Boomer-Clark told Sky News that everyone rallied to support fellow pupils and staff.

She said: “After the boys were tragically murdered, for us first and foremost we were thinking about the families and how they were coping with the absolute tragedy and shock of that.

“I can remember trying to prepare for that Monday morning and my memories now are how exceptionally strong our young people are and how we have a real sense of community.

“Unbeknownst to us the young people had arranged to hold a vigil on the playground during breaktime on that first Monday. We had hundreds of young people and staff coming together in silence.”

Ms Boomer-Clark said the boys would have attended school prom this summer.

“We had a wall that was lit up in red for Mason and Liverpool football club and a wall in blue for Park Knowle Football Club,” she said. “The year group came together and supported each other through it.”

Detective had never seen ‘horrific’ weapons before

The murders came before a new law was introduced banning ownership of zombie-style knives and machetes.

Detective Superintendent Gary Haskins said: “The weapons used in the attack on Mason and Max were simply horrific.

“I’ve been a detective for many, many years and I’ve had the misfortune of investigating some serious offences.

“In all my service I’ve not seen a weapon like the one we saw used on those two boys.

“There is no place for a weapon of that type in society for any reason whatsoever.”

The detective praised the boy’s families, who attended court throughout the trial.

He added: “I’m humbled by the families involved in this investigation. They’ve been at court every day, they’ve seen things at court that no parent should ever be exposed to. They saw the attacks on their children, but they maintain their dignity, their courage and their love for their family.

“How can you replace what they’ve lost? They’ve lost two beautiful sons, and I can only hope that the verdicts will bring some form of closure. It will never close completely.”

Snook will be sentenced on 19 November at Bristol Crown Court.

The other four defendants will be sentenced on 16 December following the preparation of pre-sentence reports.

Police are continuing to investigate the Hartcliffe house attack and search for those responsible.

UK

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September – slower than expected

Published

7 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September - slower than expected

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the quarter.

The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.

And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve, which is why I am not satisfied with these numbers.

“At my budget, I took the difficult choices to fix the foundations and stabilise our public finances.

“Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people’s pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal,” Ms Reeves added.

The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.

The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.

The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.

It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.

The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.

The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.

Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.

The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.

UK

Meeting the deeply radical anti-tax group that is ‘growing in popularity’

Published

7 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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Meeting the deeply radical anti-tax group that is 'growing in popularity'

“If you are a member of something, it means you’ve accepted membership. Anything with ‘ship’ on the end, it’s giving you a clue: it’s telling you that’s maritime law. That means you’ve entered into a contract.”

This isn’t your standard legal argument and it is becoming clear that I am dealing with an unusual way of looking at the world.

I’m in the library of a hotel in Leicestershire, a wood-panelled room with warm lighting, and Pete Stone, better known as Sovereign Pete, is explaining how “the system” works. Mr Stone is in his mid-50, bald with a goatee beard and wearing, as he always does for public appearances, a black T-shirt and black jeans.

With us are six other people, mainly dressed in neat jumpers. They’re members of the Sovereign Project (SP), an organisation Mr Stone founded in 2020, which, he says, now has more than 20,000 paying members.

As arcane as this may sound, it represents a worldview that is becoming more influential – and causing problems for authorities. Loosely, they’re defined as “sovereign citizens” or “freemen on the land”.

Their fundamental point is that nobody is required to obey laws they have not specifically consented to – especially when it comes to tax. They have hundreds of thousands of followers in the UK across platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Telegram.

Increasingly, they are coming into conflict with governments and the law. Sovereign citizens have ended up in the High Court in recent months, challenging the legalities of tax bills and losing on both occasions.

In October, four people were sentenced to prison for the attempted kidnapping of an Essex coroner, who they saw as acting unlawfully. The self-appointed “sheriffs” attempted to force entry to the court, one of them demanding: “You guys have been practising fraud!”

The Sovereign Project is not connected to any of those cases, nor does it promote any sort of political action, let alone violence.

Instead, they are focused on issues like questioning the obligation to pay taxes, as Mr Stone explains, referencing the feudal system that operated in the Middle Ages.

“Do you know about the feudal system when people were slaves and were forced to pay tax?” he asks.

“Now, unless the feudal system still operates today, and we still have serfs and slaves, then the only way that you can pay taxes is to have a contract, you have to agree to it and consent to it.”

Another member, Karl Deans, a 43-year-old property developer who runs the SP’s social media, says: “We’re not here to dodge tax.”

Local government tends to be a target beyond just demands for tax. Mr Stone speaks of “council employee crimes”.

I ask whether, considering the attempted kidnapping in Essex, there is a danger that people will listen to these accusations of crimes by councils and act on them.

“Well that’s proved,” Mr Stone says. “We only deal with facts.”

Evidence suggests this approach is becoming an issue for councils across the UK, as people search online for ways to avoid paying tax.

Sky News analysis shows that out of 374 council websites covering Great Britain, at least 172 (46%) have pages responding to sovereign citizen arguments around avoiding paying council tax. They point out that liability for council tax is not dependent on consent, or a contract, and instead relies on the Local Government Finance Act 1992, voted on by Parliament.

But the Sovereign Project’s worldview extends beyond council tax. It is deeply anti-establishment, at times conspiratorial. Stone suggests the summer riots may have been organised by the government.

“The sovereign fraternity operates above all of this,” he says. “We look down at the world like a chessboard. We see what’s going on.”

He explains that, really, the UK government isn’t actually in control: there is a shadow government above them.

“These are the people who control government,” he explains.

“A lot of people say this could be the crown council of 13, this could be a series of Italian families.”

Professor Christine Sarteschi, an expert in sovereign citizens at Chatham University, Pittsburgh, says she’s worried about the threat sovereign citizens may pose to the rule of law, especially in the US where guns are readily available.

“The movement is growing and that’s evidenced by seeing it in different countries and hearing about different cases. The concern is that they will become emboldened and commit acts of violence,” she says.

“Because sovereigns truly believe in their ideas and if they feel very aggrieved by, you know, the government or whomever they think is oppressing them or controlling them… they can become emotionally involved.

“That emotional involvement sometimes leads to violence in some cases, or the belief that they have the power to attempt to overthrow a government in some capacity.”

Much of this seems to be based on an underlying and familiar frustration at the state of this country and of the world.

Mr Stone echoes some of the characteristic arguments also made by the right, that there is “two-tier policing”, that refugees arriving in the UK are “young men of fighting age”, that the government is using “forced immigration to destroy the country”.

Another SP member, retired investment banker David Hopgood, 61, says: “I firmly believe it is the true Englishman – and woman – of this country – that has the power to unlock this madness that’s happening in the West.

“We’ve got the Magna Carta – all these checks and balances. We just need to pack up, go down to Parliament and say: It’s time to dismiss you. You’re not fit for purpose.”

The members of the Sovereign Project are unfailingly patient and polite in explaining their understanding of the world.

But there is no doubt they hold a deeply radical view, one that is apparently growing in popularity.