Grenfell Tower: Landmark report finds government ignored warnings about fire risks of high-rise buildings
https://news.sky.com/story/grenfell-tower-landmark-report-finds-government-ignored-warnings-about-fire-risks-of-high-rise-buildings-13209236
Posted by topotaul
17 Comments
Will anyone who profited off it face any consequence as a result of this damning report?
I won’t hold my breath
And now another 18 months until the police decide not to charge anyone.
No lessons will be learnt. Many homeowners are in the same situation with companies profiting over the removal of the same cladding they put in.
Seven takeaways from the report, from BBC Live Text:
1. **Manufacturers of cladding products** – which were “by far the largest contributor” to the fire – were found to have engaged in “systematic dishonesty”, and used “deliberate and sustained strategies” to make their products appear safe
2. **Arconic**, the company which made the cladding panels on the tower’s exterior, are found to have “deliberately concealed” the safety risk; two firms which produced insulation – Celotex and Kingspan – were found to have “misled”
3. **“Incompetent” companies involved in the 2011 refurbishment of the tower** – Studio E and Harley Facades – are found to bear “significant” responsibility for the disaster, while project manager Rydon’s oversight of the work led to a culture of “buck-passing”
4. “Many opportunities” to address the risks posed by flammable cladding were missed by governments from the early 1990s onwards, culminating in **“decades of failure”**
5. **The 2010 Conservative-Liberal Democrat government** is strongly criticised for its focus on cutting regulation, which led to safety matters being “ignored, delayed or disregarded”
6. **Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council** and its social housing arm, the Tenant Management Organisation, had a “persistent indifference to fire safety, particularly the safety of vulnerable people”
7. **London Fire Brigade** lacked a strategy to evacuate the building once they had lost control, and had an “unfounded assumption” the type of blaze which occurred at Grenfell Tower could not happen
[source](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c623vrw92rrt?post=asset%3Ab8129909-09a9-42fc-8009-ef194e79578c#post)
Every time politicians start wanking on about “cutting red tape” and “health and safety gone mad” – these are the consequences.
In a just, fair society people would be going to jail for this. I wonder the government will bring out the ‘lock them up’ rhetoric for this criminality or is that enthusiasm is reserved for the lower classes?
What we’re looking at is the results of a de-facto unregulated industry. Government is meant to protect people from greedy inhuman businesses but in this case it failed at every level across successive administrations.
When people talk of politicians being all the same, this is what they mean. In the pockets of big business and against the people they are elected to serve.
Just to prove how different they are from the Tories on safety and regulations Labour, this week, defended their Railways minister who got an engineer sacked for raising safety concerns.
Every single person at Arconic who colluded in those lies should be given a life sentence for every one of the 72 people who died. I hope the families of the dead and the surviving tenants sue them for every single cent. Those people at Arconic deserve no pity and no mercy.
With toxic smoke being cause of death. How many survivors are unwell or risk of future health issues if they inhaled toxic smoke
They called for a Bonfire of red tape.
Well they sure fucking got it.
I hope they’re happy.
Is there something that the Tory party didn’t mess up in the last 14 years??
Excoriating report. This is the consequence of unfettered capitalism.
We knew all this immediately, high rise tower blocks full of residents don’t just go up in flames. The bus just got parked by govt, police & media long enough to take the heat off any consequences. Any suggestion of any culpability on panel shows like Question Time was immediately shot down at the time
Remove the entire wealth from every conservative MP who either served on cabinet or was PM. Use that money to compensate the victims families.
This would include removing all the wealth, salary and pensions from May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak.
Me, and many others still live in buildings deemed a fire risk,
So we have learnt nothing, and changed nothing.
WTF
So… is snyone going to be held responsible or do anything about it?