The Bishop of Barking has criticised the UK government’s response to unsafe cladding as “deeply unsatisfactory”, after a major fire broke out at a tower block in Dagenham, East London, on Bank Holiday Monday.
Over 100 residents were evacuated as more than 200 firefighters responded to the blaze on Freshwater Road on Monday morning. The fire service said the flames engulfed the whole building and had been brought under control just after 11am that day.
The building was known to have safety issues, according to the London Fire Brigade (LFB) and documents show the high-rise was undergoing "remedial" work to remove and replace "non-compliant cladding" on the fifth and sixth floors.
The LFB has stated that all of the building’s occupants have now been accounted for.
The incident has raised alarms about delays in safety improvements, as the final report on the Grenfell Tower Fire – which killed 72 people - is due to be published Wednesday next week.
Latest government data shows 4,630 residential buildings that stand 11 meters or higher in England have unsafe cladding, while only half have begun or finished remediation work. Of these, fewer than a third (1,350) were reported as having completed the remediation process.
The Bishop of Barking, Rt Revd Lynne Cullens told Premier Christian News these figures were “deeply unsatisfactory” and called for more to be done to prioritise building safety.
“All eyes will be on the government's response next Wednesday.
“Clearly people who are living in those blocks and in those places will themselves feel unsafe at this time, so we need a swift and reassuring government response to this fire and also to the final report of the inquiry next week.”
Bishop Lynne praised the emergency services who responded to the incident and added that local churches and faith partners were “primed and ready to offer pastoral and practical support in the days and weeks ahead.”
“I think we need to be praying for the government, and we need to be lobbying the government to make sure that the response is swift and effective in order to avoid a future tragedy,” she added.
Grenfell United, which represents the bereaved and survivors of the Grenfell Tower Fire, said the Dagenham blaze highlighted the “painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole".
