Grenfell Tower fire: ‘Systematic dishonesty’ by construction firms, report reveals

The 72 deaths in the Grenfell Tower fire were avoidable, and the blaze was a result of “decades of failure” by government and the construction industry, a report into the disaster has concluded.

Scores of people who lost their lives in the blaze which engulfed the 24-storey tower block in north Kensington, on June 14, 2017, were “badly failed” due to incompetence, dishonesty and greed, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said.

The west London tower block was covered in combustible products because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chairman Sir Martin said in a statement.

He called out “deliberate and sustained” manipulation of fire-safety testing, misrepresentation of test data and misleading of the market.

Grenfell became one of the worst tragedies in modern British history and the long-running inquiry has now laid out detailed findings into the actions of corporate firms, the council, fire brigade and government.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the report identified “substantial and widespread failings”, and the government will carefully consider its recommendations “to ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again”.

Stuart Cundy, deputy assistant commissioner of the Met Police, said the report was “direct, comprehensive and reaches clear conclusions” – but that the independent police investigation “operates under a different legal framework and so we cannot simply use the report’s findings as evidence to bring charges”.

He added: “To secure justice for those who died and all those affected by the fire we must examine the report – line by line – alongside the evidence from the criminal investigation.

“As I said previously, this will take us at least 12-18 months. We have one chance to get our investigation right… we owe that to those who died and all those affected by the tragedy.”

London mayor Sadiq Khan said the residents of Grenfell Tower “paid a price for systemic dishonesty, corporate greed and institutional indifference and neglect”.

He said “profit has been put before people” which “isn’t just shameful, it’s utterly indefensible”.

Khan added that “more must now be done to hold those responsible to account, including banning any of the companies held responsible by the inquiry from receiving any public contracts as the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) look into bringing criminal prosecutions”.

The damning 1,700-page report laid out a series of findings, including:

• The government ignored warnings despite “many opportunities” to identify the risks posed especially to high-rise buildings by flammable cladding and insulation;

• By 2016, the year before the fire, it was “well aware of those risks, but failed to act on what it knew”, the report said;

• Ministers supported a “deregulatory agenda” within government which saw safety matters – even affecting the safety of life – “ignored, delayed or disregarded”;

• The tower came to be wrapped in flammable material because of “systematic dishonesty” among those who made and sold cladding panels and insulation;

• Firms “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market”;

• Former government agency, the Building Research Establishment (BRE), which provided advice on building and fire safety was “complicit in that strategy” when it came to the main insulation product from Celotex;

• Certification bodies “failed to ensure that the statements in their product certificates were accurate and based on test evidence”, while the UKAS, which is responsible for oversight, “failed to apply proper standards of monitoring and supervision”;

• Statutory guidance on fire tests was “fundamentally defective”;

• Fire safety was seen as ‘an inconvenience’ by the tower’s landlords with a “persistent indifference to fire safety, particularly of vulnerable people” between 2009 and 2017;

• The London Fire Brigade had a “chronic lack of effective management and leadership” as well as a “culture of complacency”;

• And residents were left feeling ‘abandoned’ and ‘utterly helpless’ in the immediate aftermath of the fire.
  
  Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said the union had “always argued that 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”.
  
  He added: “An agenda of deregulation cost lives. Construction companies gamed the system to maximise their profits. Semi-privatised building control put commercial interests ahead of regulatory duties.
  
  “The government must go further than what is set out in this report. The deregulation of recent decades must be comprehensively reversed. The systems for delivering building safety must be brought under public ownership and must be given the resources they need.”

More to follow.