The Grenfell Tower fire has be recognised as one of the major scandals of our time. In 2017, the twenty four storey Grenfell Tower, a block of flats in North Kensington, caught fire resulting in the deaths of seventy two people.
The current inquiry of the 2017 disaster aims to investigate government decisions dating as far back as 1997. Lawyers will consider whether the fire was the result of an attempt to deregulate the building industry, concealment of concerning knowledge regarding material safety, and potential government profits.
This inquiry will consider the period in which New Labour and the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition were in power and the decisions made during these time frames that impacted the events of 2017.
Following a fire at Garnock Court in 1999, concerns were raised around the standards used to assess building materials and their safety. A review conducted in 2002, as a response to the Garnock Court fire, tested current cladding systems. The majority of these systems failed. As a result, it is suggested that the government and building industry knew of the fire risk thirteen years prior to the Grenfell disaster.
The building industry includes a Class 0 standard, the highest standard of fire resistance. Materials within this Class 0 can be used within commercial and domestic building and is deemed safe enough to be used throughout construction, even within evacuation routes.
It is known that this Class 0 standard included materials that burnt freely. Despite this knowledge, government officials allowed them to be installed in high rise buildings.
The Lakanal House fire of 2009 prompted the coroner, Frances Kirkham, to insist all attributes of a building should be assessed in fire safety inspections with the introduction of sprinklers in high rise buildings. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government disregarded this suggestion due to ‘prohibitive cost.’
The growing concern is the concealment of this information in return for profit. The inquiry will consider whether the coalition government exploited the building industry and deliberately concealed known fire risks.
