Scots not at risk as Scottish building regulations have made a Grenfell impossible here
By Professor John Robertson
In the Herald today, revealing as much grasp of towering infernos as he does of ferry services, the Herald’s Martin Williams suggest:
Ministers have come under fire for spending just 9% of a special fund set up to deal with ‘dangerous’ cladding across Scotland seven years after the Grenfell tragedy. A total of 72 people lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017. Its cladding is believed to have contributed to the rapid spread of the blaze.
Where’s the fire coming from? Miles Briggs!
Why is Briggs wrong?
Regular readers here know why.
These Scottish blocks had flammable cladding yet, in no case, did the fire spread up the floors to create a towering inferno effect and kill:
2021, one floor, no deaths.
In Glasgow again in 2022, one man taken to hospital,
Why?
This:
Reader Gordon Darge wrote for us in January 2020:
As a chartered architect in Scotland for 40 years I can confirm that the Building Regulations Technical Standards Scotland have for two decades required cavity fire barriers
2.4 Cavities Mandatory Standard Standard 2.4 Every building must be designed and constructed in such a way that in the event of an outbreak of fire within the building, the spread of fire and smoke within cavities in its structure and fabric is inhibited.
This includes for example, around the head, jambs and sill of an external door or window opening, at all floor levels and building corners etc. to prevent the spread of fire in building cavities. This would have prevented the spread of the fire at Grenfell Tower.
This is difficult and expensive to achieve and I can only guess that in England they did not follow the Scottish model because Westminster and the Tories were led by the vested interests of big business, property developers and large construction firms.
Finally, from statistics around the time of Grenfell
In Scotland 2015/16, 9 827 safety audits were carried out. England has 10 times the population and so, all things being equal, might have been expected to have seen 98 270 fire safety audits. However, in 2017/18, England saw only 49 423 fire safety audits, just over half the number. Fire safety audits in Scotland are thus almost twice as common, per head of population, in Scotland as in England.
Why? Cost-cutting Tory local authorities? Cost-cutting Tory central government?
One thought on “Scots not at risk as Scottish building regulations have made a Grenfell impossible here”
Typical of Briggs, and frankly Williams, that the criticism is the degree of expenditure” as if the funding set up was based on known and quantified problems – I’d hazard a guess that the “..spending just 9% of a special fund…” was on re-assessment of target buildings.
The pejorative term ‘dangerous cladding’ is actually class E insulation, it’s capability of spreading once ignited – Even today, class E is standard for external insulation, but is contained by fire-breaks between properties and at tops of walls – A simple bat of rockwool and non-combustible cover is all that is required to make ‘dangerous cladding’ Briggs proof.
What you’ve already highlighted on building regs is correct, but there were circumstances unique to Grenfell which are being lost in memory – The Contractor certified his own work, building inspectors and fire officers were kept at arms’ length in a Tory rampage of “cutting red tape” – That’s what caused so many deaths at Grenfell, Tory ego and over-reach…
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Typical of Briggs, and frankly Williams, that the criticism is the degree of expenditure” as if the funding set up was based on known and quantified problems – I’d hazard a guess that the “..spending just 9% of a special fund…” was on re-assessment of target buildings.
The pejorative term ‘dangerous cladding’ is actually class E insulation, it’s capability of spreading once ignited – Even today, class E is standard for external insulation, but is contained by fire-breaks between properties and at tops of walls – A simple bat of rockwool and non-combustible cover is all that is required to make ‘dangerous cladding’ Briggs proof.
What you’ve already highlighted on building regs is correct, but there were circumstances unique to Grenfell which are being lost in memory – The Contractor certified his own work, building inspectors and fire officers were kept at arms’ length in a Tory rampage of “cutting red tape” – That’s what caused so many deaths at Grenfell, Tory ego and over-reach…
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