COMMENT London suffers from a lack of housing, from too many new, often empty flats being sold to overseas buyers and now from something we hoped we would never see: a catastrophic fire killing inhabitants and further depriving citizens of affordable housing in central London, writes Michel Mossessian, design principal at Mossessian Architecture.
We will in time find out the causes and to what and to whom the fault can be attributed. But the tragedy highlights something more profound: how all of us working in the built environment sector might bear a collective responsibility and one that may require a higher level of scrutiny.
London has a great legacy of local authorities and, more recently, housing associations providing modern housing for its key workers. But slowly and surely these bodies have seen their responsibilities reduce.
Outsourcing and the use of private contractors – where the cost of provision is a key consideration – has seen service delivery become more and more the responsibility of the private sector. It is a shift reinforced by the planning system. Given that all new construction must include a percentage of affordable housing in order to obtain planning consent, responsibility for the provision of affordable housing has moved further from the public to the private sector.
At a time when the provision of good quality, affordable housing is of paramount importance, there has been a deep loss of knowledge within the local authorities and housing associations which have historically been responsible for delivering – or at least maintaining – the stock.
Of course, cost considerations have made a bad situation worse. Health and safety regulations have evolved to a point where only the private sector can afford to maintain the very highest levels of compliance with both their letter and spirit.
This may be one of the many lessons of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Can it be right that we accept that parts of our housing stock are gold-plated when it comes to safety, whereas others are given little more than a cosmetic facelift which fails to incorporate serious and savvy solutions to ensure safety?
If any good can come of this catastrophe I hope that it is of much greater collaboration and clearer sharing of knowledge and responsibility between the private and public sectors to make housing safer for all.
The Grenfell tragedy has exposed the unacceptable shortcomings in our present system and demands profound change to the way in which we address the housing crisis. If we accomplish this then London may redeem itself. That will require both the private and public sectors to contribute to an ever changing London which no longer rests on its laurels.
