The Mayor of London is to unveil his long-awaited design guide on Wednesday. This draft guide, which will make recommendations about internal space standards, environmental standards along with other health and safety standards, and has the potential to have a big impact on future housing developments and all those who design or build them.
It couldn't come at a more topical time. I'm sure you have all read about the tragic fire in Camberwell, south London, where six people were killed. The design of the building is being widely attacked - it seems it had only one central staircase running through the middle of the building, leaving many trapped inside. Other criticisms include that the building was a "maze", making the task even more difficult for the 100 firefighters tackling the blaze.
The Mayor said the blaze raised "big safety questions" and at least one London Assembly member is calling for a public inquiry into the safety of all such tower blocks as well as this particular sad case. Equally worrying is that the leader of Southwark council Nick Stanton, who, after all, will not have been at the council when it was built in the 1960s, has said that £3.5m had recently been spent on the "not atypical" block, bringing it up to the government's own Decent Homes standards.
If this point is true, the government and the Mayor need to take a careful look at whether their existing safety standards are fit for purpose.
