A COMPANY claiming that sprinkler legislation will halt building in poor areas was accused of “choosing threats over facts”.
Rhyl-based Ann Jones, AM for the Vale of Clwyd, blasted Steve Morgan, boss of housing company Redrow, who claimed that a new law making sprinklers standard in buildings would be expensive and deter developers.
Mr Morgan was recently reported to have said: “What will happen is that the poorer areas of Wales will see no new development.
“My message to the Welsh Government is simple, do not put Wales at a total disadvantage to England.”
Ms Jones, who pioneered the legislation, called the claims “a cynical threat to a lifesaving breakthrough”.
She said: “To threaten that this will stop the development of homes in poor areas without backing it up with hard evidence is quite reckless. I’m disappointed but not entirely surprised. If you look at how some car manufacturers campaigned against the use of airbags you can see a striking similarity. We’ve got evidence from the US which compared housing development in counties with sprinklers to those without. They found ‘no reduction’ in development at all.”
Ms Jones said a 2009 National Fire Protection Association study suggested the law would not cause detrimental effects to housing supply and costs.
She said: “Sprinklers have been saving lives for over 100 years. Redrow are choosing threats over facts. That’s why they lost the argument in the long scrutiny process and I suspect the same will happen this time around.”