Thursday briefing: What the Grenfell inquiry reveals about the incompetence and dishonesty that led to the fire

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/05/first-edition-grenfell-report

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In today’s newsletter: Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s report lays out how to avoid a similar disaster from happening again. But the bereaved want to more than recommendations – they want prosecutions

Good morning. More than seven years after the deaths of 72 people in the Grenfell Tower fire, the report of the public inquiry into the causes was finally published yesterday – and it forms a devastating verdict on the incompetence, dishonesty and greed that made the disaster possible.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s report paints a horrifying picture of failures in the construction industry, the council, regulators and central government. It prompted apologies from Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak on behalf of consecutive governments, and demands from the families of the victims for changes that they say are “already three decades too late”.

“The simple truth is the deaths that occurred were all avoidable,” Moore-Bick said at the report’s launch. Today’s newsletter, with the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent Robert Booth, is about who was to blame, the efforts to bring those criminally liable to justice, and the proposed reforms to stop anything like Grenfell happening again. Here are the headlines.

Five big stories

UK politics | Robert Jenrick is leading the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative party leader after a first round of MP voting that placed the former migration minister top and eliminated Priti Patel. Jenrick won the support of 28 of his parliamentary colleagues, ahead of Kemi Badenoch, who won 22 votes.

Education | Suspensions and exclusions from schools in England went up by more than a fifth in the past year, according to analysis of live attendance data. A new report detailing the change raises concerns about children being shifted out of mainstream education into alternative provision.

Ukraine | Dmytro Kuleba has resigned as Ukraine’s foreign minister as part of a wide-ranging government reshuffle designed to give what Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called “new strength” to the government and the country.

Israel-Gaza war | The UN children’s agency has said that a polio vaccination campaign to inoculate more than 640,000 children in Gaza is surpassing expectations at the end of the first phase of the programme. Describing the campaign as a “rare bright spot” in the war, Unicef said 189,000 children had been reached so far.

Social media | YouTube is to stop recommending videos to teenagers that idealise specific fitness levels, body weights or physical features, after experts warned such content could be harmful if viewed repeatedly. The platform will still allow 13- to 17-year-olds to view the videos, but its algorithms will not push young users down related content “rabbit holes” afterwards.

In depth: ‘It is shocking how much there is that needs to be done so many years later’

The 1,700 page Grenfell report is not just a matter of historic concern. Last week, a fire engulfed a block of flats in Dagenham that had known safety issues; the role played by the cladding of the building will form a key part of the investigation. “There is real urgency to the recommendations in the report,” Robert Booth said. “It is shocking how much there is that needs to be done so many years later.”

Moore-Bick concluded his statement launching the report by reciting the names of the victims, from six-year-old Yaqub Hashim, who loved model-building and wanted to be a fireman when he grew up, to 84-year-old Sheila, a prolific writer known to loved ones by her first name alone and described by a friend as “love, pure and simple”. You can read a collection of portraits of the 72, first published in 2018, here.

The bereaved and survivors said yesterday that as important as the report is, closure will not come until prosecutions are delivered. “If we don’t have this justice we will speak all the time about Grenfell,” said Karim Khalloufi, whose sister Khadija died on the 17th floor. “We want to speak about her as a good memory but we speak all the time about how Khadija was burnt.”

Here’s a summary of the key findings of the report.

The cladding companies

At the root of the fire was the fact that the cladding materials and insulation in the walls of the tower proved to be highly flammable. The report says that the key companies involved – Arconic, Celotex, and Kingspan – had engaged in “deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market”.

The findings could hardly be more serious, Robert said. “The evidence has mounted against them over the last few years,” he said. “The key word [Moore-Bick] uses is ‘systematic’: he hasn’t just detected a couple of bad apples. The picture that emerges is of companies with a drive for profit at the expense of anything that gets in their way.”

Arconic, a multibillion-dollar US company, made the combustible cladding panels on the outside of the tower. Moore-Bick finds that senior executives knew that the cladding in use could be highly flammable and did not meet safety standards. But instead of distributing warnings or withdrawing it from market, the company was “determined to exploit what it saw as weak regulatory regimes in certain countries including the UK”.

The report said that Kingspan, which made about 5% of the combustible foam insulation used at Grenfell, knowingly made false claims about its ability to withstand fire. Kingspan had “long-running internal discussions about what it could get away with”. When questions were raised about safety, a senior manager said that critics could “go fuck themselves”.

Celotex, which made most of the insulation, tried to break into the market by “dishonest means” after it found it could not meet building regulations with its own rival to Kingspan’s product. And it presented its insulation as safe “although it knew that was not the case”.

The failures of government and regulation

Moore-Bick paints a damning picture of government failure stretching back to 1991, when a cladding fire in Liverpool provided the first opportunity to make necessary reforms. He reserves particular criticism for the deregulation drive under David Cameron’s government, which was presented as a “bonfire of red tape” but saw crucial safety matters “ignored, delayed or disregarded”. (Scroll down to the end of the email to see Ben Jennings’ powerful cartoon about that choice.)

Eric Pickles, the housing secretary under Cameron, said on oath that the attempt to cut red tape had not been applied to building regulations. But the report concludes that this evidence was “flatly contradicted by that of his officials and by the contemporaneous documents”. And it says that the government was “well aware” of the risks, particularly after a 2013 coroner’s report on a cladding fire that killed six people in another London council block, but “failed to act on what it knew”.

“The report is clear that this goes back decades,” Robert said. “It’s not just the Conservative government that he’s pointing the finger at. But it is clear that in the Cameron years, this drive to cut red tape dominated decision making. Fire safety was ignored.”

The regulators are also subject to heavy criticism. The British Board of Agrément (BBA), which certificates construction products as safe, is described as “incompetent” and guilty of “an inappropriate desire to please its customers”. The National House Building Council, meanwhile, “was also unwilling to upset its own customers and the wider construction industry by revealing the extent of the problems”. And the Building Research Establishment “sacrificed rigorous application of principle to its commercial interests”.

In this excellent piece, housing journalist Peter Apps notes that these firms were all “private (or privatised) companies that had effectively taken on the regulatory roles the state no longer wanted … [they] failed to do the job of regulating the industry – one the government had abdicated from.”

The landlord

Both the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the tenant management organisation (TMO) that administered the tower on its behalf and ran a £10m refurbishment showed a “persistent indifference to fire safety, particularly the safety of vulnerable people”, the report says.

“The TMO was found to be consistently ignoring residents’ views,” Robert said. “It was often very defensive when it came to criticism.” Moore-Bick notes two “penetrating” reports years before the fire which found significant failings including “the residents’ lack of trust” – but said that the TMO “learned nothing”.

The relationship between the TMO and residents was a toxic one: residents “regarded the TMO as an uncaring and bullying overlord that belittled and marginalised them”. The TMO “lost sight of the fact that the residents were people who depended on it for a safe and decent home”.

“A clear picture emerges of a broken-down relationship,” Robert said. “And it says they failed to meet basic obligations on fire safety – like gathering information on disabled people to make a plan so that they could escape a fire.” About 40% of the building’s vulnerable and disabled residents died.

The reforms

The inquiry made urgent recommendations for reforms to stop a repeat of Grenfell. Key recommendations include a construction regulator overseen by a member of the cabinet; an urgent review of fire safety guidance; and a new independent panel to examine whether bodies with a commercial interest in getting work should continue to be charged with building control.

Keir Starmer promised yesterday that the government would respond within six months. He said that there would be a drive to speed up the “far, far too slow” process of removing unsafe cladding from other buildings, and said that the companies condemned by the inquiry would be barred from receiving public contracts.

“There is an awful lot that needs to be sorted out,” Robert said. “The government has to hear that loudly. What happened in Dagenham was a very near miss.”

The prospect of prosecutions

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Prosecutions were delayed until the conclusion of the inquiry – and it is likely to be another three years until any criminal trials take place, Vikram Dodd reports.

The police said on Wednesday that it would take 12 to 18 months for evidence to be submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service; offences already being considered include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, fraud and health and safety offences. About 50 people have been interviewed as suspects, but the report is likely to prompt a new round of interviews. Trials are not expected until at least 2027.

“I think many of the families will be satisfied with the fine grain of detail that the report includes, and many of the findings in relation to responsibility,” Robert said. “But what they really want now are criminal prosecutions.” As a statement from Grenfell United said on Wednesday: “It is a significant chapter in the journey to truth, justice and change. But justice has not been delivered.”

What else we’ve been reading

David Smith takes a look at the impact of ever-shrinking Hollywood writers’ rooms on the entertainment industry. Nimo

X marks the rot: Zoe Williams asks whether it’s time to get off the platform formerly known as Twitter. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters

According to some corners of the rightwing press, the Labour government is declaring a war on motorists even though there is no real evidence that this is the case. But maybe they should be, Jonn Elledge writes. Nimo

Tired: nepo babies. Wired: nope babies, who aren’t afraid to call out their famous parents’ toxic traits, as Kady Ruth Ashcraft explains. Hannah

280 million birds have died because of avian flu since October 2021. Nearly three years into the epidemic. Phoebe Weston investigates how the disease has spread, and what experts worry might happen next. Nimo

David Smith takes a look at the impact of ever-shrinking Hollywood writers’ rooms on the entertainment industry. Nimo

X marks the rot: Zoe Williams asks whether it’s time to get off the platform formerly known as Twitter. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters

Tired: nepo babies. Wired: nope babies, who aren’t afraid to call out their famous parents’ toxic traits, as Kady Ruth Ashcraft explains. Hannah

Sport

Paralympics | Sarah Storey claimed the 18th gold medal of her Paralympic career in the C5 classification of paracycling. Her success was followed by a bronze for Lora Fachie and silver medals for Fran Brown and Sophie Unwin. Wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn, pictured, added to GB’s Paris Paralympics success with a stunning T53 100m gold at Stade de France.

Tennis | Jack Draper beat 10th seed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 to become the first Briton in the US Open last four since Andy Murray in 2012. Frances Tiafoe held off Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 4-1 in the other men’s quarter-final. In the women’s draw, Jessica Pegula pulled off a major upset by beating No 1 Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-4, while Karolina Muchova defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-1, 6-4.

Cricket | The 20-year-old seamer Josh Hull will cap an extraordinary rise to prominence by making his England Test debut on Friday after being picked for the summer’s final match against Sri Lanka at the Oval. Hull replaces Matt Potts in the only change to the side that sealed a series win at Lord’s last week.

The front pages

We have a full review of how the newspapers covered the Grenfell report today. Here’s a summary. The Guardian headlines its lead story “Grenfell: a disaster caused by ‘dishonesty and greed’”. The Times splashes on “Killed by greed and a culture of dishonesty”, while the Daily Mail asks “Will they EVER get justice?”. “Everyone failed them” is the i headline. The Financial Times leads with “Official failings and industry deceits led to Grenfell tragedy, inquiry finds”. The Daily Mirror’s front page is filled with images of the victims above the headline: “Now get them justice”.

The Metro runs with “Grenfell: the 26-year countdown to disaster”. The Daily Express headlines its story “72 killed by: dishonesty indifference complacency”. The Sun splashes on “Now put them in the dock”, adding: “Grenfell culprits must face court”. The Daily Telegraph chooses to splash on a different story, with “Sewage leak bosses to face two years’ jail”, but also has the inquiry on its front: “Grenfell ‘crooks and killers’ will not face justice until 2026”.

Today in Focus

The Israeli negotiator who talks to Hamas

Gershon Baskin on his experience as a hostage negotiator in the Israel-Palestine conflict

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

In this special edition of the Guardian’s The play that changed my life series, Guardian readers have written about their most treasured and transformative experiences at the theatre. Even though 28-year-old Felicity Hughes, a box office assistant in London, has seen more shows than she can remember, she was floored by Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy. “Every facet of the play was exceptional, including the audience. I’ve never been in an auditorium so engrossed, ready to sing along and invested in the story,” she writes.

For Patricia Scotland, it was an avant garde production of Hamlet in 1970 which opened her eyes to the “potential for theatre to be subversive and to challenge convention” and turned her into an avid theatregoer. Meanwhile, Jennifer Kilcast, an actor, recalls seeing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1995 in South Shields – though she had seen Shakespeare before, it was the first time she had heard it performed with accents that sounded like hers. “I watched them perform as the sun set over the Tyne, and my dreams suddenly felt more attainable,” she says.

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