The Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people in June 2017, was the result of “an unedifying carousel of shirking responsibility” and “systematic dishonesty and greed”, concluded a damning 1,700-page final report into the disaster, published on Wednesday.
Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick made a strongly worded public statement alongside the publication of the report, which comes more than seven years after the disaster, outlining a litany of failures by local council leaders, the government, the fire service and producers of the materials used to build and clad the tower block.
The report included a list of recommendations that Moore-Bick said should be implemented to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening again.
Find out more about the Grenfell Tower fire, including key findings from the final report, here:
When and how did the Grenfell Tower fire happen?
Shortly before 00:00 GMT on 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in a kitchen on the fourth floor of the high-rise residential building, located in the North Kensington area of London, which was built in the early 1970s.
The fire started in a Hotpoint fridge-freezer in the kitchen of apartment 16, but quickly spread to all four sides of the building. By 03:30 GMT, the entire building was engulfed in flames.
Rescue services were deployed and rescued 65 people from the burning 24-storey building.
The fire continued to burn for 24 hours and was finally extinguished on 15 June at 00:14 GMT. It has been described as the worst residential fire in Britain since World War II.
Who were the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire?
Seventy-two people, 54 adults and 18 children, died in the fire.
In her closing remarks on Wednesday, Moore-Bick said: “All those who died were affected by the toxic gases released by the fire… We are satisfied that all those whose bodies were damaged in the fire were already dead when the fire reached them.”
What are the main findings of the Grenfell final report?
- “The 72 deaths were avoidable,” Moore-Bick said in a speech accompanying the final report. He added that those who died had failed badly. He read out the 72 names
- The government, The government, then led by Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, had failed to act on warnings about combustible cladding that had been used on the building. Moore-Bick dismissed some of the evidence presented by Eric Pickles, a former Conservative minister from 2010 to 2015, and one of the 12 people singled out for criticism, who was described as a “staunch supporter” of deregulation.
- “Decades of failure” Measures taken by UK governments between 1991 and 2017 have failed to address the problem of flammable cladding that has been routinely used in building construction. Governments “have not changed the legal guidance on the construction of external walls,” Moore-Bick said, despite being aware of the dangers of cladding as early as 1991.
- The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC)The council also allowed the use of dangerous building materials that caused the fire to spread. It also failed to provide adequate support to the victims of the fire, Moore-Bick said. Residents who lost their homes in the fire “were badly let down by the organisations that should have been providing support”. In the end, local charities and community groups had to provide shelter and food to victims in the immediate aftermath of the fire, she said.
- The Tenant Management Organization (TMO)The public body that manages the building tried to cut costs by using the dangerous cladding.
- “Incompetent companies” According to the report, companies such as Studio E and Harley Facades were involved in the 2011 renovation of the tower. Moore-Bick criticised architects and contractors.
- “Chronic lack of effective management and leadership” The report also notes that the fire brigade was also at fault, as the London Fire Brigade (LFB) was not effectively managed or directed. The LFB should have learned from a previous high-rise fire (the Lakanal House fire in July 2009), but it failed to prepare for future fires and did not change its “stay put” policy regarding people inside burning buildings.
- “Unscrupulous” construction companies were not honest with their products: Celotex, Arconic Architectural Products and Kingspan were highlighted in the report.
- Since 2005, Arconic, which made Reynobond 55 PE cladding panels, “deliberately concealed” the safety risk and had data showing it reacted to fire “in a very dangerous way”.
- According to the report, Kingspan made a “false claim” that its K15 product could be safely used in high-rise buildings. Tests in 2007 and 2008 on systems incorporating K15 “proved disastrous” but Kingspan did not withdraw the product from the market. Kingspan “cynically exploited” the industry’s lack of detailed knowledge of fire testing, the report said.
- Celotex was found to have tested its insulation with non-combustible facing, using fire-resistant panels, but this was not detailed in the test report.
- Moore-Bick said there was “systematic dishonesty” in the testing and marketing of the materials used and “deliberate manipulation of testing systems” to get unsafe products to pass safety measures.
- In her nearly hour-long statement, Moore-Bick used the words “fail,” “failure” or “failing” nearly 30 times.
How have victims responded to the report?
After the final report was published, Natasha Elcock, a survivor of the fire and leader of Grenfell United, a group made up of survivors and families of victims, spoke to the media.
Elcock said residents had been marginalised because of the “greed and profit motive of an industry that has been poorly regulated for decades”. He cited a “lack of competence, understanding and a fundamental failure to provide the basic duty of care” and highlighted the report’s finding that the London Fire Brigade knew about the dangers of the cladding but did nothing to prepare for a fire.
“The government has outsourced its functions,” he added. “Suppliers have fraudulently marketed their products knowingly as safe,” he said, adding that the tragedy was the result of “greed, corruption, incompetence and negligence.”
Ed Daffarn, another survivor of the fire, blamed the deregulation culture promoted by the previous Conservative government for the disaster and called for criminal proceedings to be carried out “without delay” to ensure justice for the victims.
In her statement, Moore-Bick praised the bravery of victims and witnesses who gave evidence at the inquest.
Why did it take so long for the report to be published?
Moore-Bick acknowledged in her statement that the investigation into the disaster took seven years to complete because of the number of failures it uncovered and the time it took to investigate them all.
“As the investigation progressed, many more matters of concern were discovered,” he said.
The report also singled out some 250 individuals and organisations for criticism, so its publication has been postponed since early summer to allow time for all of them to be informed.
Are there any persons under investigation or prosecution?
Nineteen organisations and 58 individuals are currently under investigation for their role in the events leading up to the Grenfell Tower disaster.
However, the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service said prosecutions would only begin in late 2026 due to the “scale and complexity” of the investigation, the BBC reported.
“It is now up to you to deliver justice,” Elcock told them at the end of his statement on Wednesday.
What is siding?
In construction, cladding refers to the application of one material over another. It is generally used to provide thermal insulation, protect buildings from adverse weather effects, or improve the appearance of a building.
The cladding applied to Grenfell Tower is made up of aluminium composite material (ACM) panels. ACM panels consist of three layers: a polyethylene (PE) core sandwiched between two pre-painted aluminium sheets. PE is a highly flammable material.
The cladding was added to Grenfell Tower during its refurbishment which was completed in 2016.
Guillermo Rein, an engineer and professor of fire science at Imperial College London, told Reuters that ACM causes fire to spread because the aluminium layers peel off, exposing the combustible PE core to the fire.
By the end of July this year, 4,630 residential buildings in the UK measuring 36 feet (11 metres) or more were identified as having unsafe cladding, according to a government report.
What recommendations does the report make?
The report made 58 recommendations to overhaul the “seriously flawed” regulation of high-rise building refurbishment in the construction industry.
Key recommendations include:
- “Defragmentation” of the construction sectorby uniting the different branches of industry under a single regulator. The regulator should be obliged to verify that products comply with legal and industry standards.
- New legislation and guidance Improve industry practices, including independent assessment and certification of construction products.
- A new national fire and rescue corps which would provide education and training. All fire test inspection results will be reviewed by this body.
- Fire safety functions unit under a single government department and a single secretary of state.
- Independent inspection of the London Fire Brigade.
- Better training for architects in fire safety regulations.
Speaking in the House of Commons after the report was published, Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised “radical action” from the government to ensure the recommendations are implemented and such a disaster does not happen again.
On behalf of the British state, he apologised to the victims and their relatives. “They have been terribly let down,” he said.
