By Mark Langabeer, Hastings and Rye Labour member
Last night’s Newsnight programme, Grenfell Tower Report: Who Is to Blame? was entirely devoted to the fire that engulfed that block of flats in Kensington in 2017. The fire resulted in 72 deaths and the Inquiry has only now completed its findings, seven years later.
The key point to come out of the report from the Inquiry, is that, in the words of its chair, all the deaths were avoidable. The even was preceded by a catalogue of greed, negligence, corruption and incompetence.
The presenter of the Newsnight programme, Victoria Derbyshire, interviewed three survivors of the fire, who felt that the report was a confirmation of the causes views they had on the causes of the fire and they thought it was a fair assessment about who was responsible. The blame lies with the contractors and sub-contractors, and with national and local government.
The programme and survivors picked up on a number points. In 2001, it was reported, tests were run on the cladding used on Grenfell Tower, and in many other high rise buildings. Those tests had clearly shown that this type of cladding was combustible, yet nothing was done to prevent it being used on external high rise buildings. Yet a fire-resistance equivalent would have cost only £2 more per panel.
Building companies ‘marking their own homework’
One of the survivors told the programme that privatisation was also a cause, because building regulations were effectively handed over to the building companies themselves. They were therefore able to ‘mark their own homework’ when it came to the vital matter of safety. As the survivors pointed out, it was obvious that profit came before people and this, too, was the essence of the Inquiry Report.
Three former residents of Grenfell Tower, also stated that around half of buildings with combustible cladding are still waiting for it to be replaced and they were extremely sceptical about getting justice for those who died. It was reported that it could be as long as another two years even before possible charges are presented to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
One fire survivor observed that the police had never requested the documentation relating to Grenfell and these are not likely to be available in the future. One journalist who had been following the Inquiry, told the programme that there was a lot of buck-passing by the companies who had been involved in the refurbishment of the Tower.
Cosy relationship between builders and Tory government
What the programme demonstrated, and it comes out in the Inquiry Report itself, is a cosy relationship culture between building companies and the Tory Government. Companies were able to lobby the ministers, to reduce regulations within the industry. In fact, the former Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron, even boasted that he would have a ‘bonfire’ of what he called ‘red tape’ but which included safety and other important building standard regulations.
Although some of the survivors said that they were hopeful that justice would would be done, they were not convinced that it would be. One of them even noted that in the House of Commons, the chamber was already half empty as MPs didn’t bother to stay after Prime Minister’s Questions, to hear the Inquiry Report being presented. He had concluded that many MPs just didn’t care about the Inquiry conclusions. In my opinion, he’s not far wrong on that.
What I found particularly nauseating, in this programme was the hypocrisy of the national press. Most of these Tory-supporting newspapers – if not all of them – had supported privatisation and what they called ‘government red-tape’, in other words, deregulation. These same papers demonise trade unions who are one of the main bulwarks for defending and driving up safety standards.
The Press, owned by billionaires, are just like the unscrupulous builders and developers who laid the groundwork for the Grenfell disaster. Along with their friends, the Tories, Liberals and unfortunately, even many Labour MPs, they are forever putting profit before safety.
The Newsnight programme is available on BBC i-player, here.
The full ‘Phase 2’ Report of the Grenfell Inquiry can be found here.
