Rydon, the construction firm associated with both the Grenfell Tower refurbishment and the cladding (subcontracted to Harley Facades) of the evacuated Chalcot Estates in Camden, is set to win a huge housing contract in Ealing – one that involves refurbishment of residential blocks.
According to Construction News, the firm is in line to be awarded the contract to redevelop the High Lane Estates in the borough worth approximately £65 million. Price seems to have been the key factor, with the council describing the firm’s bid as the most ‘economically advantageous’.
There is no suggestion – at least so far in the public domain – that cladding forms a part of the project and no cause of the rapid spread of the fire has yet been formally confirmed, but there is bound to be close scrutiny of the specifications of the project in view of recent events.
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Reblogged this on Earth Changing Extremities and commented:
#ealing #cladding #TowerBlocks #GrenfellTower #camden #HighLaneEstates #RydonConstruction
Cheap is what they mean, and cheap is what they will get. Information on their other works indicates a willingness to go to the absolute bargain basement of cheap to ensure a profit from even the most miserly contracts. Like failing to box in gas pipes with fire resistant cladding in Grenfell, allegedly. Like putting PVC windows in Grenfell instead of the metal frames that were part of the original design of these blocks because they contained fire, not melting and burning. This is what LA cuts mean.
When real socialists argue that we need public services to be owned and provided by the public, we hear the mantra back but they are inefficient the private sector does a much better job.
Apart from that mantra being a complete fabrication, the evidence can now be seen in the raw. The private sector is solely concerned with redeeming as much profit to itself that it cuts corners poorly trains people and hikes prices up to maximum.
Safety considerations are a direct cost and therefore companies and right wing politicians mock safety as though it were unnecessary, and when catastrophes happen, it’s all put down to either just a one off or collateral damage in a risk analysis.
That is why they are deathly silent on this issue, as it is absolutely clear to anyone where the blame lies and no amount of propaganda can hide the facts.
For an example of how remiss the private sector is with public safety, we need only refer to Rail Track the privatised rail company that oversaw so many deaths through accidents on the railways.
Blair was adamant that we could not afford to re-nationalise Rail Track until the mounting death toll made it impossible to ignore. Miraculously the money was found and Rail Track was taken over, instantly putting resources where it was needed and halting the toll over night,
I have to say the moral of that story has never been adhered to and the case is proven, where there is public need the private sector is not best placed to deal with it. So when Blair said that if the public sector could prove it can do it better than the private sector, the best provider should win.
In truth regardless of the facts which these Neo-Liberal politicians ignore, the private sector is always the winner and people are the ones who bear the cost.
I do hope that the reality of past events begin to sink in, it’s ordinary people that create the work whatever it is, but it is who owns the means of production that actually control the outcomes.
We need to build proper council houses, using a direct workforce, with real town planning as we had in the past, instead the private sector outsourcing mickey mouse standards.
Reblogged this on MAL's MURMURINGS.