Housing Secretary Steve Reed said Nigel Farage should sack Simon Dudley for his ‘disgraceful’ comments about the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire that claimed 72 lives
Reform UK is under pressure to dismiss its housing spokesman after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” while remarking that “everyone dies in the end”.
Simon Dudley, a former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, claimed the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way” on regulation following the devastating blaze at the west London tower block in 2017.
The Grenfell Inquiry concluded that the 72 deaths were entirely preventable and had been preceded by “decades of failure” by governments and the building industry to address the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
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Mr Dudley was appointed as Reform’s housing spokesman last month, with the party announcing he would spearhead an urgent review into “Britain’s building crisis”, outlining reforms to planning, housing delivery and national infrastructure.
In an interview with Inside Housing published on Wednesday, he claimed that building safety regulations introduced in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire were an example of “regulation which is not working”.
Mr Dudley told the magazine the Grenfell fire was a “tragedy” but insisted he does not believe the regulatory framework is proportionate. He went on to say: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”
The Building Safety Regulator, established following the fire and tasked with overseeing the safe design, construction and occupation of higher-risk buildings, has previously come under fire for delays in its approval processes. Last June, the Government unveiled reforms aimed at tackling delays in constructing new high-rise homes, including a fast-track process and additional investment.
He added: “Extracting Grenfell from the statistics, actually people dying in house fires is rare… many, many more people die on the roads driving cars, but we’re not making cars illegal, so why are we stopping houses being built?”
He argued that “You can’t stop tragic things happening. You can try to minimise excesses, but bad things do happen.” Poor regulation, he claimed, is what prevents houses from being built. “So the pendulum has just swung too far the wrong way,” he said.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: “If Nigel Farage has an ounce of decency, he will sack his housing chief immediately. These disgraceful comments about those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire are beyond the pale and it is completely untenable for Simon Dudley to continue in his position.”
Green Party MP Sian Berry said: “Reform has sunk to a new low and shown a real disrespect to the victims of Grenfell. Anyone who has any awareness of what Grenfell residents went through, in fact anyone with any empathy or humanity, will find these comments truly abhorrent.
“Nigel Farage must sack Simon Dudley for this disgusting outburst. That Reform would want to scrap key safety regulations brought in after the horrific Grenfell fires tells you everything you need to know about the party.” A Reform UK spokesperson stated: “Homes must, of course, be built safely.
“However, overly burdensome building safety regulations can stifle housebuilding, meaning targets are missed and the waiting list for homes grows longer at a time when we need more. Simon’s comments on Grenfell reflected his broader point that the regulatory pendulum has swung too far in response to the tragedy.
“As he explained, there is a fine balance between overregulation – which can slow the delivery of new homes – and ensuring that more homes are built safely without too much red tape.”
