Grenfell Tower fire: Renewed calls for 'justice' after report finds 'systematic dishonesty' led to 72 deaths

Grenfell Tower was turned into a death trap by “dishonest” construction firms, architects and negligent politicians who ignored fire safety for decades, a public inquiry has found, paving the way for criminal prosecutions over the disaster.

Seventy-two Grenfell residents lost their lives when fire engulfed the west London tower block on June 14, 2017, in one of the worst disasters in modern British history.

A public inquiry stretched across seven years has exposed how a refurbishment of Grenfell prior to the fire left the block coated in cheap and highly flammable materials while warnings of an impending disaster from those who lived in the Tower were ignored.

In an utterly damning report, Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick has now concluded that architects, companies involving in the disastrous refurbishment, and the local council in Kensington and Chelsea are to blame for fatal fire.

“The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable”, he said, adding that failings around Grenfell were down to “incompetence”, “dishonesty”, and “greed”.

“Those who lived in the tower were badly failed over a number of years and in a number of different ways by those who were responsible for ensuring the safety of the building and its occupants”, he said.

Cost-cutting on the refurbishment was prioritised over safety, he said, while the warning signs of previous tower block fires had been routinely ignored.

And he found the “enthusiastic” pursuit of deregulation under David Cameron’s government had trumped the need for fire safety controls across the construction industry.

Grenfell United, which represents some of the bereaved and survivors of the fire, said the report “speaks to a lack of competence, understanding and a fundamental failure to perform the most basic of duties of care”, as they called for a ban on guilty construction firms receiving government contracts.

Police and prosecutors must “ensure that those who are truly responsible are held to account and brought to justice”, they added.

Natasha Elcock, speaking on behalf of the group after the findings were published, said she expected Sir Keir's Government to "break old habits" and "bring systematic change".

She added: "This country has been failed by governments of all political persuasions,

"Our expectation is your Government will break old habits and implement all the recommendations made by Sir Martin Moore-Bick's report without further delay, because the time to address this is already three decades too late.

"For the report to be worth anything, it must be, and bring, systematic change.

"You must finally now make this the turning point for Britain."

The Metropolitan Police has now promised to pick over Sir Martin’s report, line-by-line, as a team of nearly 200 officers pursue criminal prosecutions against those responsible.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy, said: “We will be thorough and diligent in our investigation while moving as swiftly as possible. We owe that to those who died.”

But the force has warned there is just “one chance to get our investigation right” and criminal charges may not be brought for another 18 months. “The fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them”, said Sir Martin.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer issued an apology on behalf of the British state to the bereaved families, survivors and Grenfell community. He told the Commons: “The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty… to protect you and your loved ones… And I am deeply sorry.”

Wednesday’s Evening Standard front page (Evening Standard)
Wednesday’s Evening Standard front page (Evening Standard)

The Government will "carefully consider" the findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry to "ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again", he added.

 (AP)
(AP)

When fire ripped through the tower block thanks to the flammable cladding system, it spread faster than “dropping a match into a barrel”, the inquiry was told. Residents had been told to “stay put” when the blaze first broke out, and were then trapped inside the inferno.

Sir Martin picked out architects Studio E, principal contractor Rydon, sub-contractors Harley and Exova, and the Kensington and Chelsea Council as sharing primary blame for the disaster.

“One very significant reason why Grenfell tower came to be clad in combustible materials was systematic dishonesty on the part of those who made and sold the rainscreen cladding panels and insulation products”, he said.

“They engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market.”

He said Studio E managed the refurbishment with a “cavalier attitude” to fire safety regulations and failed to act when the outer walls of Grenfell were covered in dangerous cladding, so must “bear a very significant degree of responsibility for the disaster”.

Rydon “gave inadequate thought to fire safety, to which it displayed a casual attitude throughout the project”, while cladding sub-contractor Harley “failed in many respects to meet the standards to be expected of a reasonably competent cladding contractor and it too bears a significant degree of responsibility for the fire.”

Sir Martin also found that Arconic Architectural Products, which manufactured and sold the Reynobond 55 PE rainscreen panels used in the external walls of Grenfell Tower, had from 2005 to 2017 “deliberately concealed from the market the true extent of the danger of using Reynobond 55 PE in cassette form, particularly on high-rise buildings.”

Celotex which manufactured RS5000, the principal insulation product used on Grenfell Tower, had “embarked on a dishonest scheme to mislead its customers and the wider market” on the safety of its products.

Turning to politicians and officials, he highlighted the 2009 Lakanal House fire in Camberwell, south London as a major missed opportunity to bring a renewed focus on fire safety across the UK, while dire warnings of a coroner and MPs were ignored.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick read a statement following the publication of the final report (Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Wire)
Sir Martin Moore-Bick read a statement following the publication of the final report (Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Wire)

“The government’s deregulatory agenda, enthusiastically supported by some junior ministers and the Secretary of State, dominated the department’s thinking to such an extent that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded”, he said.

Sir Martin went back to a 1991 tower block fire in Merseyside, and said there had been “many opportunities for the government to identify the risks posed by the use of combustible cladding panels and insulation, particularly to high rise buildings, and to take action in relation to them.

“Indeed by 2016, the department was well aware of those risks, but failed to act on what it knew.”

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s building control department “failed to perform its statutory function of ensuring that the design of the refurbishment complied with the Building Regulations. It therefore bears considerable responsibility for the dangerous condition of the building immediately on completion of the work.”

The council’s arms-length Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) was seen by Grenfell residents as an “uncaring and bullying overlord that belittled and marginalised them, regarded them as a nuisance, or worse, and failed to take their concerns seriously.”

Sir Martin said the TMO had “lost sight” of its role providing safe places to live, and “failed to take the steps necessary to ensure that it was met”.

And he particularly picked out the fact that the TMO had relied on a single fire safety assessor for its entire estate, who had “drifted into” the job without proper qualifications and with parts of his CV that had been “invented”.

Cllr Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: “On behalf of the Council, I apologise unreservedly and with my whole heart to the bereaved, survivors and residents of Grenfell for our failure to listen and to protect them.“

“The Inquiry has laid bare the chain of events that led to that night. We fully accept its findings, which are a withering critique of a system broken from top to bottom. It shows beyond doubt that this Council failed the residents of Grenfell Tower and the 72 people, including 18 children, who died.

“We failed to keep people safe before and during the refurbishment and we failed to treat people with humanity and care in the aftermath.“We will learn from every single criticism in the report. We will take time to study it further in detail, listen to the reflections from our communities, and publish a full and formal response in the Autumn.”

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) responded to the Inquiry report with a renewed call for deregulation of the construction industry to be “comprehensively reversed”.

“The fire was the result of decades of failure by central government to regulate the building industry – the prioritisation of private profit over human life”, said FBU general secretary Matt Wrack.

“This report...demonstrates beyond doubt that an agenda of deregulation cost lives.

“Construction companies gamed the system to maximise their profits. A system of semi-privatised building control put commercial interests ahead of regulatory duties.”

London Fire Brigade – which was heavily in the Inquiry’s first report for its response to the fire – had a “chronic lack of effective management and leadership”, concluded Sir Martin, where problems were considered “undeserving of change or too difficult to resolve, even when they concerned operational or public safety”.

Kingspan, which was found to have “cynically exploited” the construction industry’s knowledge of insulation with the sale of its products, said its past conduct was “deeply regrettable” and has been addressed, while stressing its materials were not to blame for the disaster.

Arconic said it has “acknowledged its role as one of the material suppliers involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower”, and stressed it had not concealed information or misled about its products.

Sir Keir is due to address Parliament later today. In his written statement, he said: “The Government will carefully consider the report and its recommendations, to ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again.

“I hope that those outside Government will do the same.

“Given the detailed and extensive nature of the report, a further and more in-depth debate will be held at a later date.”

Sir Martin concluded his report with a series of recommendations which he said, if implemented, should prevent buildings ever again being constructed with dangerously flammable materials.

He called for a single regulator for the construction industry, fire safety functions to be brought under one government department, the creation of a national Chief Construction Adviser, and tougher rules on fire safety strategies including to take into account the needs of vulnerable people.

He also recommended the creation of a new College of Fire and Rescue, as well as an inspection of the systems now in place at London Fire Brigade.