The government’s enthusiasm for demonising developers in particular should be tempered by the fact that the Grenfell inquiry is more than likely to highlight significant failings across the board, particularly on the regulatory front but also in relation to linked matters such as electrical safety. Given the limitations of a survey for an individual flat in terms of covering everything that will be payable by the buyer’s service charge, surely it is also now time for a single report for each building or block to be mandated so that it can be relied on by multiple buyers and regularly updated.
As Gove acknowledged, we still desperately need more homes that are "safe and decent and sustainable". There is no appetite for government to deliver those homes itself and it is therefore vitally important that they work hard to provide a robust and reliable regulatory and planning framework that rewards good, safe and sustainable design and delivery. Homeowners deserve better than the tragedy of Grenfell, and much hard work is still needed to go with the fine words.
Jeremy Raj is national head of residential property at Irwin Mitchell
