Which professional advice should we follow?
“Making our buildings safe” states “Decisions are only made on qualified professional advice” with similar views expressed on the MQ forum. However, this raises the question as to which set of professionals one takes advice from and how they are commissioned and briefed.
Whilst professionals have an important contribution to decisions, their opinions need considering alongside their profession’s and commercial interests as well as the perspectives that other professions bring.
Stepping back and looking at the broader perspective its seems likely that:
- professionals signed-off the cladding that was used on Grenfell Towers for general building use
- professionals signed-off this cladding specifically for use in Grenfell Towers
- professionals are now issuing EWS1s with increasing evidence emerging concerning highly variable judgements
- professionals gathered and published the national fire statistics.
Of these it appears it is the professionals working on national fire data which involve least “professional” judgement as it is usually pretty clear if someone has died at home, if it was fire related and what type of dwelling it occurred in. See the blog on this site “Should we be concerned about fire risks at MQ?” which draws on this data and provides useful context to the other sets of professionals directly involved in safety.
Of the groups of professionals involved in the present EWS1 situation an article by Martina Lees in the Sunday Times on 9/5/21 indicates that particular caution needs exercising in relation to the professionals assessing EWS1s. Examples she gives of changes in EWS1 ratings as repeat surveys were commissioned are:
Waterside Park, East LND got an A1 rating in early 2020, then B1 in Sept 2020 which was then changed on a third survey in April 2021 to a B2. Likewise, with Renaissance, Lewisham with their final B2 rating given a couple of months earlier.
St Andrews, Bromley-by-Bow was initially given a B1 which then changed to B2 by the next group of professionals, while at Blue Buildings, Portsmouth the initial B2 rating changed to B1.
From her article it appears that one factor which leads to ratings changing is who commissions the work. This further adds to the questions of many MQ leaseholders as to why we commissioned more work from surveyors on the R&R panel with the obvious interest that R&R have in such work proceeding.
If you are concerned about issues raised in this item and want to try to change things, or wish to express your support to those organising the site then contact: admin@imqra.com Likewise if there are issues you would like to raise.
Note: views in this blog and on this site are the honest opinion of the author & are made available in the interest of residents at MQ.