A long awaited report into the deaths of 72 people in a fire at Grenfell Tower is due to be published more than seven years after the blaze.
The lengthy document – the final report of the inquiry into the 2017 disaster – is expected to lay out in detail its findings around the actions of corporate firms in the construction industry, the local authority, London Fire Brigade and government.
Families of those killed – who were shown the report yesterday to allow them to digest in private the findings – have insisted it must be a ‘landmark report’ which prompts widescale change after what was described as a ‘spider’s web of blame’ was spun during inquiry hearings.
Keir Starmer will respond to the report in the House of Commons at lunchtime and the Met police have said their officers will be reviewing the report for possible criminal charges.
Lord Eric Pickles is set to bare the brunt of criticism in the report, after he was scrutinised over delays to much needed fire safety regulations.
The former communities secretary is expected to be the highest level minister to be personally criticised over systemic failures.
A report in 2019, from the first phase of the inquiry, concluded the tower’s cladding did not comply with building regulations and was the ‘principal’ reason for the rapid and ‘profoundly shocking’ spread of the blaze.
This final report, which follows further hearings on the tower’s 2016 refurbishment, will present conclusions on how the west London block of flats came to be in a condition which allowed the flames to spread so quickly.
The report comes just over a week after a major fire in east London at a block which had been undergoing work to have cladding removed as a result of what happened at Grenfell.
The non-fatal Dagenham blaze, coming so many years after the 2017 fire, prompted fierce criticism from various quarters including bereaved and survivors group Grenfell United, which said it showed the ‘painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole’.
Dame Judith Hackitt, who led an independent review into building regulations after the Grenfell fire, described it as ‘really concerning’ that so many people are still living in uncertainty and fear about the safety of their homes.
Number 10 said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had, at Tuesday’s Cabinet, said the Dagenham fire was a further reminder of the importance of learning lessons from Grenfell to ensure mistakes made then never happen again.
The Fire Brigades Union has said the Grenfell fire ‘was a crime caused by deregulation and institutional failings at the highest level’.
The final hearing of the second phase of the inquiry took place in November 2022, with families having previously spoken of their long wait and continued fight for justice.
The report’s findings could ramp up pressure on police and prosecutors to make speedier progress on getting people before the courts – something many bereaved and survivors have said must happen for justice to be served.
In May, the Metropolitan Police said their investigators need until the end of 2025 to finalise their inquiry, and prosecutors will then need a year to decide whether charges can be brought.
Bereaved and survivors have described that wait, which could stretch to a decade after the catastrophic fire, as ‘unbearable’.
According to the update from police and prosecutors earlier this year, the mammoth police investigation into the fire has already generated 27,000 lines of inquiry and more than 12,000 witness statements.
A total of 58 individuals and 19 companies and organisations are under investigation for potential criminal offences, and more than 300 hours of interviews have taken place.
Potential offences under consideration include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, perverting the course of justice, misconduct in public office, health and safety offences, fraud and offences under the fire safety and building regulations.
June 14 2017
At 12.54am, a call is made to the London Fire Brigade reporting a fire has broken out in a fourth-floor flat.
Barely half an hour later, at 1.29am, flames have climbed to the top floor of the 24-storey block.
Images and footage of the devastating fire make headlines across the world.
June 28 2017
Retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick is appointed to lead a public inquiry into the disaster.
July 28 2017
The Government announces an independent review into building regulations will be led by Dame Judith Hackitt.
It is alleged that they are complex, unclear and leave enough wriggle room for contractors to cut corners on safety.
September 19 2017
The Metropolitan Police announce a widening of their criminal investigation, as detectives consider individual as well as corporate manslaughter charges.
November 30 2017
A petition, backed by singer Adele, is set up urging then prime minister Theresa May to appoint additional panel members alongside the inquiry chairman.
It is feared that Sir Martin will lack valuable first-hand experience of life as a social tenant in a multicultural neighbourhood.
December 22 2017
Theresa May turns down the request from survivors and bereaved families to overhaul the public inquiry, saying Sir Martin has the ‘necessary expertise to undertake its work’.
January 29 2018
Maria del Pilar Burton, a 74-year-old survivor known as Pily, dies in palliative care. She had been in a care home, unable to return to her husband Nicholas, since the fire.
She comes to be considered the 72nd victim of the fire.
May 17 2018
Dame Judith Hackitt recommends ‘fundamental reform’ to improve fire safety, in her report, which identifies a ‘race to the bottom’ in building safety practices with cost prioritised over safety.
Ministers promise to consult on banning flammable cladding.
May 21 2018
The inquiry begins seven days of commemoration hearings to the dead, starting with a heartbreaking tribute to the fire’s youngest victim, stillborn Logan Gomes.
June 4 2018
Sir Martin’s inquiry begins hearing opening statements from lawyers and a batch of expert reports are released.
June 14 2018
A year after the fire, survivors and bereaved relatives gather for a church service and observe a minute’s silence by the tower.
They are joined by rapper Stormzy and, later, then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
June 21 2018
Firefighter evidence begins. It ends with then London Fire Brigade commissioner Dany Cotton telling the inquiry she would change nothing about her team’s response on the night of the fire.
Survivors and the bereaved react with anger.
September 30 2018
The Government bans the use of combustible cladding on all new residential buildings above 18 metres, as well as schools, care homes, student accommodation and hospitals.
October 3 2018
Survivors, those who lost family in the fire and local residents begin giving evidence at the inquiry.
December 12 2018
The first phase of the inquiry ends.
May 30 2019
The Prime Minister appoints two new inquiry panel members to sit alongside Sir Martin in the second phase of the probe – a ‘step forward’ welcomed by survivors.
June 10 2019
Met Police Commander Stuart Cundy says there is no guarantee criminal damages will be brought over the fire.
He said: ‘Even now, coming up to the two-year anniversary, there is no guarantee that we can give that there will be criminal charges.
‘There is a guarantee that they (the bereaved and survivors) have our absolute personal commitment to do what we can to make sure this investigation is fearless, secures all the evidence that it can and puts that evidence before the Crown Prosecution Service.’
June 18 2019
Survivors and bereaved families project a message on to the Houses of Parliament reading: ‘Two years after Grenfell, this building still hasn’t kept its promises £DemandChange.’
This followed similar action in the previous week when ‘unsafe’ tower blocks across the UK were illuminated with calls for the Government to take urgent action.
July 18 2019
A Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee report accuses the Government of ‘not doing enough’ to remove dangerous cladding from buildings, more than two years on from the blaze.
The report also says that the £200 million set aside for remediation of private sector residential buildings with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding will not be enough.
October 30 2019
The first report, on phase one of the inquiry, is published. It concludes that the principal reason the flames shot up the building so quickly was the combustible aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding with polyethylene core which acted as a ‘source of fuel’.
It also finds the London Fire Brigade (LFB)’s preparation for a tower block fire such as Grenfell was ‘gravely inadequate’ and its lack of evacuation plan a ‘major omission’.
Its 46 recommendations include points on evacuations of high-rise residential buildings, and around communications within fire and rescue services and among emergency services during major incidents.
November 6 2019
Jacob Rees-Mogg apologises for suggesting Grenfell victims should have used ‘common sense’ and ignored fire service guidance not to leave the burning tower block.
Mr Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons at the time, faces widespread criticism, including from Grenfell survivors and Jeremy Corbyn, after he said people are safer if they ‘just ignore what you’re told and leave’, while discussing London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) ‘stay-put’ policy.
December 19 2019
Survivors call for a Fire Safety Bill to improve safety by compelling building owners and managers of multi-occupied residential premises to mitigate the risks of external walls, including cladding and fire doors, to be hurried through Parliament.
February 24 2020
Campaigners urge the Government to create a multibillion-pound fund to remove flammable cladding after new research suggested more than half a million people could currently be living in unsafe homes.
The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA), whose members manage more than 50,000 apartment buildings, said 25% of these properties with 50 units or more were found to have unsafe cladding after it carried out an analysis using a sample of its largest buildings.
Across the entire portfolio, this equates to 1,375 buildings that are home to 550,000 people, it said.
March 11 2020
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces a £1 billion fund to remove unsafe cladding from high-rise residential buildings.
As part of the spring 2020 Budget, the money is put forward for scrapping all combustible cladding materials from all residential buildings over 18 metres tall.
The Government had previously committed a total of £600 million to get rid of aluminium composite material (ACM) panels.
April 28 2020
Remediation work to address unsafe cladding on high-rise residential blocks pauses ‘on as many as 60% of sites’ after the Covid-19 outbreak, then communities secretary Robert Jenrick says.
November 2 2020
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) launches a campaign for extra funds for the fire and rescue service after research shows there are some 11,200 fewer firefighters than a decade ago.
November 17 2020
Robert Jenrick said he hopes dangerous cladding like that used on the outside of Grenfell Tower will be removed from the majority of other buildings by the end of the year.
January 19 2021
The Government pledges to set up a new regulator to ensure the safety of building materials after ‘deeply disturbing’ evidence of malpractice was heard at the Grenfell Inquiry.
The investigation heard that some firms involved in the production of materials used on the tower’s flammable cladding deliberately manipulated fire tests and marketing materials.
Now, a regulator for construction products will be able to remove any products from the market that pose a safety risk and prosecute any companies that are found to be flouting rules.
January 28 2021
Labour says leaseholders should be protected from the cost of replacing dangerous cladding on homes, with leader Sir Keir Starmer describing the situation as ‘intolerable’.
February 10 2021
Robert Jenrick announces a new £3.5 billion package to pay for the removal of unsafe cladding, but critics – including some Tories – say it fails to address the problems faced by residents living in unsellable flats in unsafe blocks.
March 19 2021
Scottish housing minister Kevin Stewart says the Scottish Government will offer free cladding inspections of high-rise buildings.
April 29 2021
Campaigners condemn the Government’s ‘indefensible’ Fire Safety Bill, which will become law and leave hundreds of thousands of leaseholders paying to remove dangerous cladding from their buildings.
October 27 2021
The Government decides to charge property developers with profits of more than £25 million a levy, to raise the £5 billion fund to remove unsafe cladding, at a rate of 4%.
October 31 2021
The Ministry of Defence says 755 buildings with sleeping accommodation for troops in the UK are either fully or partially covered in ‘combustible’ cladding.
November 8 2021
Newly-appointed Housing Secretary Michael Gove says the Government ‘failed people at Grenfell’ and did not always appreciate the importance of fire safety, in his first address to MPs in the role.
January 7 2022
Michael Gove says thousands of flat owners living in buildings taller than 11 metres will be spared the cost of removing dangerous cladding.
January 10 2022
Michael Gove says developers must agree to a £4 billion plan to fix dangerous cladding on low-rise flats by early March or risk new laws forcing them to act.
January 27 2022
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry enters Phase 2, which is investigating how the building came to be in a condition which allowed the fire to spread so quickly.
May 2022
The Government says that, despite widespread support for personal emergency evacuation plans (Peeps), there remain what it described as significant barriers to implementing them, on the grounds of proportionality, practicality, and safety.
Recommendations to the Government following phase one of the inquiry included that the owners and managers of high-rise residential buildings be required by law to prepare Peeps for residents unable to self-evacuate.
June 14 2022
Bereaved and survivors gather for the fifth anniversary of the fire, some of them saying families feel ‘abandoned’ amid half a decade of ‘betrayal’ by the housing department as progress on safety and change remains slow.
March 2023
Michael Gove names companies he said have not yet agreed to the remediation contract for fixing building safety issues.
The Housing Secretary calls out the housebuilding companies after the deadline he previously gave to sign up to the agreement aimed at addressing cladding issues following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire passes.
He said 39 developers had signed the contract, committing £2 billion to fund repairs to high-rise buildings which have unsafe cladding or other fire safety defects.
July 2023
The long-awaited Social Housing (Regulation) Act passes into law, including a requirement for social housing managers to have professional qualifications – a measure which had been called for by campaign group Grenfell United.
The group says it hopes the law can ‘create a legacy for the lives that were lost’, going some way towards ‘the positive change the social housing sector so desperately needs to improve conditions for tenants’.
January 2024
Housing Secretary Michael Gove accuses insulation company Kingspan of trying to ‘wriggle out of their responsibilities’ in relation to the fire as he blames the firm for giving capitalism ‘a bad name’.
In a radio interview he says: ‘You can wriggle as much as you like, but the evidence is clear.
‘You have got to own up to your responsibility. We cannot have people who put unsafe products on the market attempting to say ‘do you know what? it’s someone else’s fault’. That does not do.’
The company has long said that its K15 insulation product made up only 5% of the insulation in the tower block, and was used without its recommendation.
May 2024
Police confirm bereaved families and survivors face waiting until the end of 2026 for a decision on potential criminal charges over the fire.
The Met says their investigators need until the end of 2025 to finalise their inquiry, and prosecutors will then need a year to decide whether charges can be brought.
Grenfell United describes the wait, which could stretch to a decade after the catastrophic fire, as ‘unbearable’.
In the same month, the publication date for the final report is announced as September 4.
June 14 2024
On the seventh anniversary of the fire, campaigners from the infected blood scandal and the Covid Bereaved group join for the memorial walk.
They back a call for a national oversight mechanism – an independent public body to be put in place, responsible for collating, analysing and following up on recommendations from public inquiries.
July 2024
Government figures at the end of July showed that of the 4,630 residential buildings in England of 11m (36ft) or higher that had been identified with unsafe cladding, only around half (2,299) were noted as having either started or completed remediation works.
Of this, less than a third (1,350) overall were recorded as having completed such works.
August 26 2024
A non-fatal fire at a block of flats in east London which had been undergoing work to have cladding removed prompts fierce criticism of the slow pace of remediation works on dangerous budlings.
Grenfell United say the incident in Dagenham ‘highlights the painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole’, while expert Dame Judith Hackitt describes it as ‘really concerning’ that so many people are still living in uncertainty and fear about the safety of their homes.
New Housing Secretary Angela Rayner acknowledges progress on making buildings safe has been too slow and says there remains ‘far too much’ dangerous cladding on properties.
She says she will meet regulators to ‘press home the urgency to make sure that that work is done’.
September 4 2024
The final report is published.