LONDON — Britain’s building safety systems are a lax and confused mess in need of a major overhaul and much tougher enforcement, an investigator commissioned after the Grenfell Tower disaster reported on Thursday, but she did not recommend banning all flammable facades, a critical factor in that fire. That cladding has long been prohibited in the United States for buildings above a certain height, and in some places it is banned entirely. As a result, her 159-page report did not address specific changes people have called for, like a cladding ban or requiring sprinklers and multiple fire stairs in high-rise buildings. “This review is a betrayal and a whitewash,” said David Lammy, a Labour lawmaker who has become one of the government’s most outspoken critics. “It is unthinkable and unacceptable that so many people can die in a disaster like Grenfell and one year on flammable cladding has not been banned.”

Source: New York Times May 17, 2018 15:22 UTC