UK expert Dame Judith Hackitt calls on state to deal with public safety risk posed by cladding

The state government must pay to remove flammable cladding fitted to Melbourne apartments amid construction “shortcuts”, a UK engineer involved in the Grenfell Tower disaster recovery says.

THE engineer who spearheaded the United Kingdom’s response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy has urged the Victorian government to help pay for the removal of flammable cladding.

Amid renewed concerns about the fire danger of dodgy cladding, Dame Judith Hackitt told the Herald Sun that the government needed to help ensure people were safe in their homes, as she hit out at the construction industry for taking too many “shortcuts”.

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Dame Judith led a major building fire safety overhaul in the UK after the shocking Grenfell blaze which claimed 72 lives in 2017.

The Neo200 fire earlier this month reignited fears about dozens of buildings in Melbourne where high-risk cladding still has not been removed.

Dame Judith told the Herald Sun that the government “absolutely” had to help pay for rectification works to fix dangerous buildings.

Fire damage at Neo200 tower on Spencer St. Picture: Metropolitan Fire Brigade

“This is about public safety and it’s about restoring public confidence,” she said.

“I think governments have a role to play, whether it’s to provide the funding or whether it’s to provide the strength of purpose to put behind those people who need to be held to account and made to do the work.”

The state government has so far refused to put money on the table to pay for rectification works at private buildings, instead creating arrangements for residents to cover the costs through loans tied to their council rates.

Dame Judith, who is visiting Australia as a guest of RMIT, said the construction industry needed a cultural change “to focus on delivering buildings that are safe for people to live in”.

She said there were “a whole series of systemic problems” in the building industry, which she said had failed to meet safety standards as other industries had done successfully, like car manufacturers.

Dame Judith Hackitt. Picture: Supplied

London’s Grenfell Tower fire. Picture: Getty Images

“For reasons that I genuinely don’t understand, the construction industry worldwide seems to have not followed modern industry practice in the way that so many other sectors have,” Dame Judith said.

She said the removal of cladding in Victoria “should be pushed as a priority”.

“If you’re living in a building right now with flammable cladding, it’s a real concern for people and we have to restore their confidence that they are safe where they’re living,” Dame Judith said.

She said governments had a responsibility to learn from the Grenfell Tower tragedy and “ensure that we never see anything like that again”.

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