Why Scotland can't have a Grenfell

In today’s Herald (23 January) Martin Williams claims there’s a post-Grenfell safety crisis going on with Scottish buildings. 

A Grenfell can’t happen here because Scotland’s building regulations are stricter than England’s. For over 20 years, the Building Regulations Technical Standards Scotland has required cavity fire barriers: “Every building must be designed and constructed in such a way that in the event of an outbreak of fire within the building, the spread of fire and smoke within cavities in its structure and fabric is inhibited.”

The regulations have been twice tested. A 2021 fire in a multi-story block of flats in Glasgow was contained within one floor with no casualties. In 2022, a Glasgow tower block caught fire and was quickly contained, again with no casualties.

Because the regulations were costly to implement, one can surmise that England didn’t follow Scotland’s example because its politicians are captured by property developers and large construction firms who balked at spending money to safeguard lives. Grenfell happened in London, not Scotland. 

Furthermore, since 2005 Scotland has required non-combustible cladding on domestic buildings with any story over 18 metres or pass a large-scale fire test. And it has restricted using combustible materials on all buildings over 11 metres and tightened controls over the combustibility of cladding on hospitals, care homes, entertainment and assembly buildings, regardless of height. 

Finally, fire safety audits in Scotland are nearly twice as common per head of population as they are in England.

Scotland hasn’t had a Grenfell because we have a government that prioritises safety over special interests.