The damning report into what happened at Barton House shows a wider issue, says the man in charge
06:09, 14 Jul 2026
Barton House Medact Report Launch Event
The man in charge of housing in Bristol said residents of the city’s oldest tower block were the victims of a ‘systematic failure to listen to and respect’ council tenants – by the council itself.
People living in Barton House suffered long-lasting trauma after those in charge of the council at the time failed to notice the deterioration of the building for years – until it got so bad residents had to be evacuated with no notice.
Now, after a damning independent report into the circumstances around that emergency evacuation, the man in charge of housing at Bristol City Council has admitted those in charge at the time had a ‘culture of not recognising the needs of council tenants’.
Speaking exclusively to Bristol Live, Cllr Barry Parsons, the chair of the council’s housing committee, said the culture at City Hall for years before the November 2023 evacuation mirrored a systematic failure across the country, which treated council housing and council tenants poorly.
Cllr Parsons said what happened with both the Grenfell tragedy in London in 2017, and the emergency evacuation of Barton House, were caused by a wider issue of a stigma around council housing and council tenants.
“There’s been a big change in attitudes towards council tenants,” said Cllr Parsons, citing decades of under-funding and austerity, which led to council housing being ‘considered as housing of last resort’.
“There was a process known as ‘residualisation’ in council housing,” he said. “Rather than being the original ambition – an ideal that council homes were for anyone and you might be a labourer or a doctor, living in a council home – it’s been considered as housing of last resort, and there’s been a huge amount of stigma attached to council tenants because of that.
“What that has meant is there’s been a systematic failure to listen to tenants’ voices, and to really respect council tenants,” he added.
(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
“There’s been a culture of not recognising the needs that council tenants have and an acceptance of poor standards. That’s been across the sector nationally and Bristol’s not been an exception to that,” he added.
The Green Party commissioned the independent review into what happened leading up to and after the evacuation of Barton House, after relentless campaigning from the residents there.
But while the report described a failure of leadership, a lack of capacity and understanding, and missed opportunities to realise the serious deterioration of conditions at Barton House, Cllr Parsons said the purpose of the review was not to find who specifically was responsible or should be held accountable for that.
Asked what consequences there had been for the individuals involved in the failures that led to the evacuation, the lack of a pre-prepared plan for a mass evacuation, and the way the tenants were treated throughout, Cllr Parsons said none.
“That’s not really what we were trying to get at with the report,” he said. “I know there’s been people who are calling for some sort of comeback for individuals, but we deliberately didn’t want to do that with the report.
“It doesn’t name anybody, and that was deliberate, because we wanted to make sure that Altair (the independent reviewers) were able to get the best possible engagement and were able to give the fullest possible account of what happened, the decisions that were made and when information was known,” said Cllr Parsons.
Bristol City Councillor Barry Parsons (Green, Easton)(Image: Paul Gillis)
“The really important thing for us is that what the report shows is there was an inadequate structure overall. The council just didn’t have the capacity, didn’t have the leadership, didn’t have the right structures. It didn’t understand how to use and interpret safety information and there wasn’t sufficient emphasis on safety and risk management in the culture.
“That’s a system-wide thing, not really about individuals,” he added.
Within weeks of the residents eventually returning to their homes in the spring of 2024, Mayor Marvin Rees ’ term ended, and Labour lost control of the council to a Green-led committee system.
Cllr Parsons outlined what changes the council has implemented since then – which he said have been based around beefing up the structure of the housing department, having an executive director level person in charge of the council’s housing stock as landlord, and having a focus on safety, and the conditions for tenants.
A giant banner has been dropped from the fifth floor window of Barton house(Image: Bristol Live)
“We’ve set up a new executive directorate for housing – providing sufficient leadership capacity and skill within the council, to manage these really, really complex homes with increasing challenges as they age.
“We’re setting up a whole division of strategy and assurance – that’s what the report identifies was missing. There was not a clear accountability or governance structure for how we made sure we were complying with regulations, and assuring ourselves that our homes are safe and we’re meeting all the standards we should be.
“That’s the focus for me in the role. What I’m trying to do is make sure that everyone in Bristol – we have a particular responsibility to our own tenants – has a safe home that’s a decent standard,” he added.
