Penny-pinching and adversarial: construction industry’s ‘rotten culture’ faces Grenfell reckoning

The inquiry’s report cited ‘systematic dishonesty’ on the part of the makers of the tower’s cladding panels and insulation products. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

After the damning findings of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire and with the threat of criminal proceedings hanging over key players, the construction industry is facing a moment of reckoning.

The 2017 fire that killed 72 people stemmed from a “rotten culture in the construction industry”, where multiple failures occurred across the supply chain, according to Dame Judith Hackitt, an engineer who led a review on building safety after Grenfell.