'Everyone failed' on Grenfell, says buildings boss

"I'm not involved in heroes and villains - [Grenfell] was total system failure."

These are the words of Andy Roe, chairman of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), the body in charge of safety and design in the nation's high-rise buildings, nearly 70% of which are in London.

Known as Lord Roe of West Wickham, a former firefighter and London Fire Brigade commissioner, he received a life peerage and took his seat in The House of Lords in January.

He now leads the body set up in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy to make tall buildings safer, and says every public and private institution failed on that tragic night in June 2017.

Lord Roe's acting chief executive at the BSR is Charlie Pugsley, who was also his deputy commissioner at the brigade.

Both were at the Grenfell fire and both said they are driven in their new roles by the events they witnessed.

Lord Roe told BBC London: "Charlie and I had a very direct experience of that tragedy.

"We witnessed the loss of an unbelievable amount of lives - 72 people, God rest their souls.

"We saw the disrespect and destruction of a community that should have been listened to," he added.

"I'm not interested in heroes and villains and I think I'm in a position where I can say that.

"I think Charlie is too because we were there that night and we looked down the barrel of that."

Lord Roe said "everyone failed" over the Grenfell disaster.

He added: "Every single institution involved - private, public, state, local government, the management organisation, the manufacturers who lied, my own organisation: the London Fire Brigade.

"There was unbelievable heroism from rank and file firefighters on the night, but the institution itself let the community down and let the firefighters down in its lack of preparation and its lack of foresight.

"So I'm not involved in heroes and villains - this was total system failure."

The BSR is responsible for overseeing the design and safety of all tower blocks of 18 metres or above, equivalent to seven storeys.

Construction firms have to submit designs to them before building. The same is true for those trying to remediate unsafe buildings.

According to the latest figures, there are 192 high-rise blocks in London in the process of being remediated at the moment - more than the 149 in the rest of the country combined.

There are also nearly 90 high-rise buildings in progress in the capital, with 20 of the 28 new-build decisions in the last three months having been in the capital.

Roe and Pugsley have been in post around a year, initially trying to unblock a massive backlog of building applications and now trying to speed up the remediation process too.

They stress the need to work more closely with the industry and say the response has been overwhelmingly good.

But there's a warning too, from Lord Roe.

"I'm not interested in finger-pointing, I'm interested in our responsibilities and what we do to lead change.

"And, to their credit, there are many in the construction industry who want to do the same.

"But there will be bad actors, so we're looking at a slightly more vigorous enforcement policy to roll out next year. We will come for you if you're a bad actor - so there's a message to take out."

Pugsley is more quietly spoken than his boss, but very much on the same page about what drives them both to make tower blocks safer.

He said: "From my own personal experience, going to Grenfell and then, in the fire investigation, working to the police lead on scene for several months, through to other different events – maybe less well known to the public but equally impacting to people who live in those buildings who have lost loved ones or lost everything – it's really quite difficult.

"We are in the role as a regulator but we must never lose sight of the people.

"If we lose sight of the people, we've missed the point in terms of just making buildings safer."

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