Summary of the day …
The Grenfell Tower disaster was the result of “decades of failure” by central government to stop the spread of combustible cladding combined with the “systematic dishonesty” of multimillion-dollar companies whose products spread the fire that killed 72 people, a seven-year public inquiry has found
In a 1,700-page report that apportions blame for the 2017 tragedy widely, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the chair of the inquiry, found that three firms – Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex – “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to … mislead the market”
He also found the architects Studio E, the builders Rydon and Harley Facades and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s building control department all bore responsibility for the blaze
He said that all of the deaths were avoidable and the victims were badly failed
Keir Starmer has said the country failed its most fundamental duty to protect those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire as he offered an apology, and said that victims of the fire must feel that they are constantly “always one step away from another betrayal”
Opposition leader and former prime minister Rishi Sunak also offered an apology
Companies condemned in the Grenfell Tower inquiry will no longer be considered for public contracts, the prime minister said, one of the first steps in response to the final report. The move comes after a leading member of Grenfell United, which represents survivors and bereaved family members, told the Guardian this week that companies found at fault should no longer receive public contracts
At a press conference in west London, the campaign group demanded that Starmer implement the recommendations of the report in full
Victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster face a wait of at least three years to find out if anyone will be convicted for the failings that led to the fire. Police already suspected before the report was published that the fire and deaths were the result of criminal acts. The Metropolitan police, which has been investigating the disaster, justified the further delay, saying: “We have one chance to get our investigation right”
You can read the prime minister’s statement in full here. The full Grenfell Tower inquiry phase 2 report can be found here. All of our Grenfell Tower inquiry coverage can be found here.
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union has said that he thinks the outcome of the inquiry will be “shocking” to people when they read it.
PA Media reports that speaking at the Grenfell Memorial Wall in west London, Wrack said:
That will be shocking to people reading press reports about the inquiry and its findings, that for decades we’ve had ministers responsible for building safety, for fire safety policy, and prime ministers who have overseen an agenda determined to get rid of regulations, and those regulations were the means by which buildings were kept safe for the people living in them.
It is shocking to hear that we’ve had governments who have overseen the deregulation and turning buildings into unsafe places to live.
He continued:
Obviously, we all hope that there will never be another Grenfell, but the facts, the statistics, show that there are thousands of buildings where there remain systems of unsafe cladding, or there remain other building or fire safety defects that have not been addressed.
Of those identified in England, only about half have had any work done on them, half of those buildings have had no remediation work whatsoever done.
