PRESS RELEASE : FBU Grenfell inquiry closing submission – “disaster is direct consequence of government policies” [November 2022]

The press release issued by the Fire Brigades Union on 9 November 2022.

As the Grenfell Tower Inquiry draws to a close, the FBU’s lawyer has told the Inquiry that “the disaster was a direct consequence of a generation of government policies which combined to create a death trap for the residents of Grenfell Tower”.

The comments came in the closing submissions for Phase 2, which covers the run-up to the night of the fire.

Commenting, Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said:

“The evidence that is coming out of this inquiry should outrage us all. Looking at the evidence from the last forty years it is clear what caused Grenfell. Political decisions have been made in service of a social and economic system driven by greed. Private interests have been allowed to take priority over the needs of ordinary citizens when it comes to building safety and fire safety. Rules have been removed or watered down in service of this political agenda. That’s what led to lethal cladding being put on Grenfell and that’s what led to the utterly tragic loss of 72 lives. Those who made and drove those political decisions need to be held to account as do those who took part in that deadly refurbishment.”

Deregulation

Deregulation is the removal of regulations or restrictions, and has been named as a key cause of the Grenfell Tower disaster by the Fire Brigades Union.

Martin Seaward, speaking to the Inquiry on behalf of the union, said that whilst “the private sector companies involved in the refurbishment [of Grenfell] bear a heavy responsibility… it would be wholly wrong and provide no justice to victims to leave the blame there”.

“They were encouraged to act by 40 years of political decisions in the service of an ideology [deregulation] based on the prioritisation of commercial interests and profit above all else, including public safety”.

He said that “the real culprits of the disaster are those in power at the top, ie ministers following their deregulatory agenda to the detriment of fire safety, and the directors of industry on which they depended for sponsorship and party funding”.

Seaward said that deregulation “has become synonymous with central government abandoning responsibility for… building regulations, building control, testing and certification, fire and rescue services and fire safety”. Deregulation policies “tragically came together on 14 June 2017 to create the worst residential fire since 2017” and these policies meant that Grenfell “was a disaster to waiting to happen”.

Politics driving deregulation

He described deregulation as part of a set of ideas that drives for a “largely unfettered” free market and a role for the state that “limited to… supporting the free market”, and “prioritises… entrepreneurial freedoms and private business interests”.

He highlighted how ministers pursing this agenda had “deliberately and irresponsibly undermined” a “culture of health and safety”. Regulations were “repeatedly depicted as pointless, time-wasting administrative bureaucracy”.

Already-deregulated legislation “has not been effectively enforced” with effective enforcement “instead progressively weakened by successive governments”.

Refurbishment

Seaward did however highlight the role of the individual organisations involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell.

The refurbishment covered Grenfell in cladding that had a flammability which some have compared to petrol.

He said that “the key players [in the refurbishment] amply demonstrate the widespread disregard of fire safety”. He pointed to cladding manufacturer dishonesty and manipulation here, and several agencies including the architects and the design and build contractor failing to complete the fire risk strategy.

London Fire Brigade

Seaward highlighted the structure of the Inquiry, which first involved a close analysis of the emergency response and then returning to discuss the run-up to the disaster in phase 2. He stated that the Inquiry “risks distracting from the real causes of the disaster and creating a scapegoat that would allow those truly responsible, including senior politicians and company directors, to evade responsibility”.

He said that “Firefighters risked their lives going into the blazing inferno to try and rescue residents and extinguish the fire. They and the control staff did their duty professionally, bravely and to the best of their abilities in the face of a rapidly developing fire that was beyond anything any of them had ever experienced or trained for. They followed their procedures and applied their training as much as the extreme conditions allowed”.

What’s next?

After this set of submissions there will be a pause whilst the Inquiry prepares its final report, which is likely to be published next year.