UK: Grenfell Tower survivors criticise delayed inquiry report and urge swift implementation of safety reforms
"Grenfell Tower survivors: ‘The system isn’t broken, it was built this way’," 9 September 2024
As a public inquiry released its report on the Grenfell Tower fire, survivors and relatives of those who died in the blaze said the findings had come too late. Seventy-two people... died in the fire that ripped through the high-rise tower block in the North Kensington area of London on the night of June 14, 2017...
The report highlighted failures by successive United Kingdom governments, local council leaders, the fire service and the companies involved in the production and installation of the flammable cladding and insulation that allowed the fire to spread so rapidly...
Following the report’s release, Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologised to those affected by the fire on behalf of the state...
[A survivor] called on Starmer to implement the report’s findings, which include 58 recommendations to overhaul regulation of the construction industry’s refurbishment of high-rise buildings... “They also need to speed up this removal of the cladding, because it’s not just the residential blocks, it’s [in] hospitals and schools,” [she] said. According to government figures, as of July 2024, there are 4,630 residential buildings in the UK, which are 11 metres (36 feet) or higher, with unsafe cladding.
Nineteen companies and 58 individuals are currently under investigation over their roles in the disaster, with possible charges including corporate manslaughter and fraud. However, the police have said that, because of the “scale and complexity” of the inquiry, any prosecutions will not take place until late 2026.