‘ALL DEATHS AVOIDABLE’ Grenfell tragedy could’ve been stopped 26 YEARS before inferno as ‘warning signs’ were ignored for decades, report finds
THE Grenfell tragedy could have been stopped 26 years before the inferno with "warning signs" ignored for decades, a report has found.
The long-awaited inquiry into the tragic blaze that claimed the lives of 72 people, has found that successive governments ignored warnings about the building’s flammable cladding.
This final report, which follows further hearings on the tower’s 2016 refurbishment, was published more than seven years after the blaze in west London.
The inquiry - led by retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick - said the government had "failed to discharge" its responsibilities to ensure public safety for more than 25 years after a major fire in 1991 at Knowsley Heights, Merseyside.
He said that those who influence the construction industry, fire and rescue services, the management of fire safety in buildings and resilience planning must understand how mistakes "can be avoided in the future".
"Warning signs" about materials being used in buildings were emerging as early as 1991, but nothing was done to take this seriously.Sir Martin said: "The failings can be traced back over many years, and our efforts to get to the bottom of what went wrong and why accounts for the length of our report and the time it has taken us to produce it.
"We find that there was a failure on the part of the government and others to give proper consideration at an early stage to the dangers of using combustible materials in the walls of high-rise buildings."
The ashen faced ex-judge told the inquiry that the deaths of all 72 people who were killed in the fire at the building were avoidable.
Delivering his final statement seven years after the fire, Sir Martin said the tower residents were "badly failed over a number of years" by those responsible for ensuring their safety.The report revealed:
- Residents ‘abandoned’ and ‘utterly helpless’ as the Government ignored warnings
- Landlords saw fire safety as ‘inconvenience’
- All 72 deaths avoidable
- Some victims died before flames reached them
- ‘Defective’ guidance on fire tests
- Safety ‘ignored and disregarded’
- Campaigners say ‘Justice not delivered’
Sir Martin told how there was also "systemic dishonesty" on the part of manufacturers, involving deliberate manipulation of the testing process.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer told MPs this afternoon that ministers will be writing to the companies implicated in the “horrific failings” that led to the 2017 tragedy.
The unscrupulous construction firms shamed by the Grenfell Inquiry will be blocked from getting any more government contracts.
Speaking in the Commons - where some of the victims’ families were watching - he issued an apology on behalf of the British state.
The PM added: "The country failed in its fundamental duty to protect you...I am deeply sorry.”
After 400 days of evidence in an inquiry that has cost the UK taxpayer more than £200m, Sir Martin reserved some of his most damning conclusions for central government.
Sir Martin cited how in 1999, a parliamentary select committee warned it should not take a serious fire in which lives were lost for the government to act on fire safety in high-rise buildings.
After coming to power in 2010, the then-coalition government and its Conservative successor, elected in 2015, pursued a deregulation drive.
The inquiry found that the government was “well aware” of the risks posed by highly flammable cladding “but failed to act on what it knew”.
The government failed to tighten up ambiguous fire regulations while it was engaged in a “bonfire of red tape” from 2010 to 2016 in an attempt to boost the economy after the global financial crisis.
This included a "one in, two out" policy for new regulation that the inquiry said put civil servants under pressure to reduce red tape.
Eric Pickles, Cameron’s housing secretary until 2015, had “enthusiastically supported” the prime minister’s drive to slash regulations and it dominated his department’s thinking to the extent that matters affecting fire safety and risk to life “were ignored, delayed or disregarded”, the inquiry concluded.
Sir Martin's report suggested this culture meant there was little appetite for reviewing or amending building regulations on cladding, even after the inquest into the deaths of six people at Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London, in July 2009 called for change.
The inquiry found: "In the years that followed the Lakanal House fire 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."
While Lord Pickles told the inquiry it would have been "ludicrous" for civil servants to believe building safety regulations were covered by the policy, and other ministers denied the "one in, two out" policy had had an impact on building regulations, the final report rejected this.
The report said: "It is disappointing that when officials became aware of matters which posed serious risks to life, effective steps were not taken to draw those risks to the attention of ministers.
"The failure to foster a culture in which concerns could be raised and frank advice given represents a serious failure of leadership on the part of ministers and senior officials."
The inquiry also found the government "failed to pay due regard" to a large-scale fire safety test in 2001 and failed to treat the coroner's recommendations following the Lakanal House blaze with "any sense of urgency".
It criticised the decision to shut down the Building Research Establishment's inquiry into Lakanal House barely a month after the fire as "premature and hard to understand", but consistent with DCLG's "lack of interest in learning lessons from the incident".
Concerns raised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fire Safety were dismissed, with DCLG's attitude to fire safety matters described by the report as "complacent and at times defensive".
Opposition to regulation also appeared to have been behind then-local government minister Sir Brandon Lewis's reluctance to set up a national fire safety regulator in 2013.
The inquiry found he was "not attracted to the idea of introducing additional regulation" but "more interested in making existing schemes more efficient and devolving power away from central government".
It added that "the basis of his optimism was not clear" and said his views were "of the most general kind and not directed to the particular merits of introducing a national fire safety regulator".
The Fire Brigades Union has said the Grenfell fire “was a crime caused by deregulation and institutional failings at the highest level”.
The final hearing of the second phase of the inquiry took place in November 2022, with families having previously spoken of their long wait and continued fight for justice.
The report’s findings could ramp up pressure on police and prosecutors to make speedier progress on getting people before the courts – something many bereaved and survivors have said must happen for justice to be served.
In May, the Metropolitan Police said their investigators need until the end of 2025 to finalise their inquiry, and prosecutors will then need a year to decide whether charges can be brought.
Bereaved and survivors have described that wait, which could stretch to a decade after the catastrophic fire, as “unbearable”.
According to the update from police and prosecutors earlier this year, the mammoth police investigation into the fire has already generated 27,000 lines of inquiry and more than 12,000 witness statements.A total of 58 individuals and 19 companies and organisations are under investigation for potential criminal offences, and more than 300 hours of interviews have taken place.
Potential offences under consideration include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, perverting the course of justice, misconduct in public office, health and safety offences, fraud and offences under the fire safety and building regulations.
Grenfell Tower answers
By Jack Elsom, Chief Political Correspondent
Finally some answers for the 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster and the families who have campaigned tirelessly for seven years.
In a major moment for the new Prime Minister, a pitch-perfect Sir Keir Starmer responded to the long-awaited report into the 2017 tragedy with one of the hardest words for a politician to say: sorry.
Addressing them directly in the House of Commons - where some of the bereaved were watching - the PM issued an apology on behalf of the British state.
“The country failed in its fundamental duty to protect you. I am deeply sorry.”
Sir Keir may have been a million miles from government at the time of the fire and during the preceding “decades of failure” that led to it.
But it now falls to him to act. The families today made clear their desire both for justice and for change.
He is already trying to demonstrate he can act quickly, by blocking the named-and-shamed construction firms from getting any more government contracts.
And the full 58 recommendations from Sir Martin Moore-Bick will be considered over the next six months.
But what will likely trouble the PM the most are the terrifying failures of state that appear all-too common in recent years.
How many inquiries in modern times have laid bare a damning assessment of systemic, underlying problems?
Infected blood, the Post Office, Child Sexual Abuse. The list goes on.
Sir Keir has already identified the need to “fix the foundations” of the British state - voters will hope he comes good with some serious change
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