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News Reform’s new housing chief has sparked anger after saying “everyone dies in the end” and “fires happen” in an interview, suggesting post-Grenfell safety regulations have gone too far. Simon Dudley, the former chair of Homes England and Reform’s new housing and infrastructure spokesperson, said that Britain’s housebuilding sector was stifled by “over-regulation” in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people and displaced dozens of others in 2017. In an interview with Inside Housing, shared with The i Paper, he said: “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 added: “People may feel that we’ve done the right thing through introducing this regulation, but on the other side of that, think about all the human suffering of not having a home, not being able to have children, and being stuck in your parents’ home in your childhood bedroom. So there is a balance.
Published: April 1, 2026 5:45 pm
Source: The i Paper — Read original