Study calls for new housing laws following Grenfell

A major new report between the University of Kent and the University of Bristol have called for a new law to be introduced in the wake of the Grenfell tower fire.

The joint research venture between the two universities looked into the issues that contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire on the 14th of June 2017. The report concluded that laws surrounding tenant protection in the UK are “outdated, complex and patchily enforced”.

The research, called ‘Closing the Gaps – Health and Safety at Home’ was conducted for Shelter; a charity that offers advice for disadvantaged homeowners and campaigns to improve the living conditions of homeless people.

The research was conducted using an advisory board of specially trained housing barristers, solicitors, and specialized housing consultants; as well as a an online questionnaire directed towards other professionals and those with experience of being tenants in the wider public.

The study argues that the tenancy laws should shift responsibility for the protection of tenants’ standards of living from the occupants of council housing to the government itself as the primary enforcer of living standards. It calls for a “necessary cultural change” to ensure that responsibilities promised to occupants of rented accommodation are sufficiently protected from the string of health and safety issues surrounding the Grenfell Tower Disaster.

The study also calls for a new revised Housing Act that can better protect those in council housing from privately hired housing firm contracts that cut corners on potentially lifesaving building regulations. The new supposed act will also ensure that all relevant housing statutes are kept in the same place in a way that is “understandable to its ultimate consumers.”

The Grenfell Tower Disaster was not only one of the worst housing disasters in modern UK history, but it also highlighted inadequacies currently facing vulnerable council and private tenants under disadvantaged circumstances in Britain, with 85% of professionals surveyed in the study stating that current housing laws in the UK are “currently not fit for purpose”.

There is increasing pressure on the government to make meaningful reforms on the current state of housing laws in the UK, to make sure that events such as the Grenfell Tower disaster is not repeated.