Redrow boss slammed for ‘cynical’ remarks on sprinkler plans

A Welsh politician has hit out at Redrow boss Steve Morgan after he criticised the country’s plans to make sprinklers compulsory in new homes.

Welsh Assembly member Ann Jones branded Morgan “cynical” for claiming the £3,500 extra cost of installing sprinklers would hit housebuilding in Wales.

Morgan claimed the cost could threaten housing schemes in “poorer” areas of the country.

But Labour’s Ann Jones criticised Morgan’s remarks in the Western Mail: “This really is cynical stuff from Redrow.

“To threaten that this will stop the development of homes in poor areas and without backing it up with hard evidence is quite reckless.

“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.

“Redrow is choosing threats over facts. That’s why it lost the argument in the long scrutiny process and I suspect the same will happen this time around.”

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