The Grenfell Tower fire that claimed the lives of 72 people was the culmination of decades of failure by successive governments and the construction industry, a damning final report into the tragedy has found.
Eighteen children were among those killed in the 2017 fire in Kensington, west London, when the 24-storey block was engulfed in flames with scores of people trapped inside.
The tower block was covered in flammable materials because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said on Wednesday.
The excoriating report concluded that all 72 deaths were avoidable, and condemned companies for the “deliberate and sustained” manipulation of fire-safety testing.
Owners of the tower, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), were also criticised, as was the tenant management organisation that managed Grenfell.
Families and survivors lashed out at the long delay to hold anyone to account, as the Crown Prosecution Service warned potential criminal charges will not likely be brought until the end of 2026.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged that the Government would write to all companies involved in the horrific failings that caused the blaze “as the first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts”.
Key findings of the 1,700 page report include:
l Those living in Grenfell were badly failed by authorities and the construction industry through “calculated dishonesty and greed”,
l Governments as far back as Tony Blair’s in 1999 were warned about the safety risk of fires in high-rise blocks,
l Successive governments under David Cameron and Theresa May received numerous warnings about the dangers of cladding materials between 2012 and 2017 but failed to take appropriate action,
l Fire-safety testing was manipulated, test data misrepresented and the market misled by companies such as Arconic and insulation firms Kingspan and Celotex, the report claimed,
l Emergency accommodation plans were inconsistent, with families crammed into one room and residents left sleeping in cars or on the grass,
l The response of the Government and RBKC was “muddled, slow, indecisive and piecemeal”, with little done to cater to people from diverse backgrounds, such as providing halal food for Muslims observing Ramadan; and
l There had been a “persistent indifference” to fire safety at Grenfell Tower with no finalised evacuation plan.
Disaster struck just before 1am on June 14, 2017, with flames ripping through the 24-storey tower block and residents fatally told to stay put in their flats, until it was too late.
The fire initially broke out as a result of a faulty fridge, but became the worst structural fire in Britain since the Blitz, with survivor groups saying that those involved have “blood on their hands”.
All of the victims of the disaster whose bodies were destroyed by fire were dead or unconscious by the time the flames reached them, the inquiry found.
Sir Keir said the seven-volume report identified substantial and widespread failings and the Government will carefully consider the report and its recommendations “to ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again”.
The inquiry found that by 2016, a year before the fire, the Government was well aware of the risks of using combustible cladding panels and insulation, particularly in high-rise buildings, but “failed to act on what it knew”.
More than 800 people were left homeless as a result, with the RBKC’s leadership wholly inadequate to deal with the scale of the tragedy, leaving many to feel abandoned and helpless.
Families who had lost all their belongings were made to wait days to be allocated emergency accommodation in hotels, with little consideration to groups with particular needs, with one pregnant woman forced to sleep on the floor.
The RBKC’s chief executive Nicholas Holgate, who acted as gold commander for the council’s response, had no clear plan and was “unduly concerned” for the council’s reputation. Mr Holgate has previously come under criticism for failing to hand over command to a London-wide group with more expertise until two days after the fatal fire.
A toxic relationship characterised by “distrust, dislike, personal antagonism and anger” was found to have existed between the residents and the Tenants Management Organisation (TMO) since 2011, with occupants of Grenfell viewing the management as an “uncaring and bullying overlord”.
It was found that the TMO had failed to disclose to the local council the outcome of an independent and highly critical report on fire safety in 2013, and no fire strategy had been finalised for the tower, despite a consultant recommending this in 2009.
The London Fire Brigade was found to have failed to provide suitable training to their control operators on handling the magnitude of calls, causing confusion at the scene.
Inquiry chairman Sir Martin and two other panel members found that “unscrupulous manufacturers” had engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate testing processes, misrepresent data and mislead the market.
This included companies such as Kingspan, which provided insulation, which had not withdrawn its product from the market despite “disastrous” tests in 2007 and 2008, and its own concern about its fire performance.
The building products company has already apologised for “process and conduct shortcomings” identified during the inquiry.
Setting out 58 recommendations, Sir Martin concluded that the construction industry had become “too complex and fragmented”, and suggested a single regulator should be put in place to be responsible for regulation of construction products, testing and certification.
In response, the group Grenfell United said: “The inquiry report reveals that whenever there’s a clash between corporate interest and public safety, governments have done everything they can to avoid their responsibilities to keep people safe. The system isn’t broken, it was built this way.”