Lib Dem Opposition Group Leader Tom Simon blasts Camden Council over fire safety failings
Lib Dem Opposition Group Leader has called for swift action and no more excuses from Labour-run Camden Council after a damning report from the Regulator of Social Housing which found that over 9,000 council homes had no smoke alarms fitted, and many other fire safety failings.
The Camden New Journal reports Cllr Simon saying “The regulator’s findings are staggering. Magdalena Fink died in November 2017 because Camden had failed to do urgent work identified in 2013. … the RSH has found “longstanding’ failure and that Camden is currently in breach of regulations. Enough excuses, enough failure. Labour-run Camden must get its act together before there is a further tragedy”.
In a letter, published by the Camden New Journal on 27th July, Tom writes,
“The Notice issued by the Regulator of Social Housing on Friday (21st July) is another damning indictment of Labour-run Camden's record on fire safety.
The history of failures leading to the death of Magdalena Fink and what has happened since is important.
In January 2013 a fire risk assessment identified urgent works needed at 31 Daleham Gardens. That was simply ignored for the next four years. In May 2017 a further risk assessment identified the works as outstanding and extremely urgent. Still nothing was done. On 21st November 2017 there was the fatal fire.
Camden Council was savagely criticised by the Coroner in April 2018 who made a series of orders for immediate action to prevent further deaths.
In February 2023, Camden Council were prosecuted for their fire safety failures and, in May 2023, fined £500,000. In mitigation they told the court, as they had told councillors, that they had learnt the lesson of that fire and had put things right.
The significance of the Regulator’s notice is simple: they have not.
Nearly six years after the fire, Camden is currently in breach of its fire safety duties. It does not have an effective system in place and it is putting tenants at risk. 9,000 actions are overdue, 1500 of them for three years, and 400 of them high risk. In 2019 6,000 actions were overdue - the situation is getting dramatically worse. Critically, many of the overdue actions are for straightforward jobs like installing smoke alarms. The absence of functioning smoke alarms was a major factor in the death of Magdelena Fink. These failures cost lives.
Keeping residents safe from fire is one of a council’s most basic duties. It is non-negotiable. Our call to the Labour administration is straightforward: there can be no further excuses and no further delays. This must be dealt with before there is further tragedy.”
See the full CNJ article https://edition.pagesuite.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pnum=3&edid=6ffa8c28-2930-4c86-97af-07eb360b5eb5&isshared=true