Ministers must act after a damning verdict on decades of regulatory failure and corporate dishonesty
Seven years after the unimaginable horror of the Grenfell Tower fire, those who survived and the bereaved at last have an authoritative verdict on who is to blame. This is a staging post, not the end of their courageous struggle for justice. We hope it brings some relief that the public inquiry chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick has vindicated their long-expressed view that decades of regulatory failure, combined with the “systematic dishonesty” of construction companies, were responsible for the tragedy that ended the lives of 72 people and broke the hearts of many more.
Arconic, which made the combustible cladding panels that were the main cause of the fire’s spread, and Kingspan and Celotex, which supplied insulation, are singled out as having pursued dishonest strategies in marketing dangerous products. The building control department of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is found to have shown “indifference to fire safety”, while Conservative councillors were mainly interested in the building’s looks. These are staggeringly awful findings, whose impact must not be blunted by the fact that they are familiar from earlier hearings.
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