Report accuses Persimmon of building homes with ‘intolerable’ fire risk

One of the UK’s largest housing firms has been accused of building homes that leave customers exposed to an ‘intolerable risk’ in the event of a fire.

An independent review of the company, which its chairman commissioned in April, was published this week.

The review found that some houses did not have fire-stopping cavity barriers and in others they had been incorrectly installed.

It said that this was ‘a systemic nationwide problem’ for the company which was caused by ‘poor culture coupled with the lack of a group build process’.

The review pointed out that there were no agreed procedures to supervise or inspect its employees or sub-contractors' work.

It highlighted that staff were only given limited training.

The review recommended that the company ‘should take sufficient time to formulate and embed a 'Persimmon Way' of building'.

The company’s chairman Robert Devlin said the company was now ‘prioritising the customer over the pure profit motive’ apologised to customers ‘affected in the past’.

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Building Safety Fire safety