Fire was caused by ‘systematic dishonesty’ of cladding firms
Inquiry into fatal inferno also exposes failings by government ministers and officials who ignored warnings about building safety checks
The Grenfell fire was caused by the “systematic dishonesty” of construction companies that manufactured cladding for the tower block’s refurbishment, a seven-year public inquiry has concluded.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the inquiry chairman, also placed blame for the fatal inferno on “decades of failure” by government ministers and officials who ignored a series of warnings over the risk of cladding fires.
He said regulators had put “commercial interests” above building safety and had been “complicit” in allowing manufacturers to “manipulate” fire testing data.
The seven-volume report of more than a million words exposed multiple failings that led to the fire in June 2017 in which 72 people died, just a year after the 24-storey tower block was refurbished.
Also criticised heavily were the London Fire Brigade, the architects involved in the refurbishment and the local authority.
The report will be scrutinised by police and the Crown Prosecution Service, with grieving relatives and survivors demanding that those responsible and identified in the report be charged and brought to justice.
The Metropolitan Police said that it would take 12 to 18 months to examine the report “line by line” alongside the evidence from the criminal investigation.
