Fire union chief slams 'disgusting' lack of action ahead of final report into Grenfell Tower tragedy

21 August 2024, 07:39

The head of the Fire Brigades Union has branded government inaction since the Grenfell Tower tragedy "disgusting".

Speaking exclusively to LBC, Matt Wrack, the union’s general secretary, has slammed the failure to address the cladding crisis, with thousands of homes still encased in Grenfell-style flammable material - seven years on from the tragedy.

He made his comments ahead of the imminent final report into the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which is due on September 4.

The inquiry, which will focus on examining the cause of the fire, was commissioned by the then Prime Minister Theresa May following the blaze which killed 72 people in June 2017.

Mr Wrack said: "What I find disgusting about the whole discussion over Grenfell for the past seven years is that I met government ministers in the days after Grenfell who said this will be a turning point. That mantra has been repeated by civil servants, ministers, the Prime Minister or the various prime ministers ever since.

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"I don't see evidence that’s what's happening. We still have thousands of buildings where either dangerous cladding is on the building or there are all the major fire safety failings in the building and people are still living in those conditions. I find that shocking seven years after such a horrific disaster.”"

Mr Wrack is calling for the new Labour government to "change direction" on fire safety, saying: "Governments for more than 40 years have sought to deregulate - and get rid of what they call 'red tape' - but as we've pointed out red tape in a building is a question of whether the building is safe or not. Whether people can escape from a fire - that shouldn't be described as 'red tape.’"

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He added: "I think what needs to be acknowledged is the idea that the free market will deliver safety has been proven to be incorrect. The idea of just letting the profits of big business determine how you build and redesign and redevelop buildings has been proved by Grenfell to be a disastrous approach and I hope that we will see a fundamental change on that issue."

While the previous government pledged to pay for the removal of cladding from residential properties of six stories (18 meters) and introduced a Building Safety Fund to support leaseholders in apartment blocks spanning between 11-18 meters, there has been criticism of the amount of time it is taking to finish remedial work.

Data published in June showed that corrective work had been completed in less than a quarter of the 4,336 buildings identified as having unsafe cladding.

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Compounding this stark figure is the fact that, according to the same data, work had not even begun in almost 1,000 of those buildings.

Mr Wrack believes that true justice for the families of those killed in the fire will not be served unless there is accountability for those responsible for maintaining the 24-storey tower:

He said: “The community don't feel that justice has been served as yet there have been no arrests and nobody [has been held responsible for the decisions that turn that building into a horrific death trap have been held to account in any realistic way.

“I think even the publication of the inquiry report will not resolve that side of it because it won't actually address the failings of the individual organisations - whether that's developers, contractors and so on.

“The failings that led to the Grenfell Tower fire are systemic, they are political because they relate to decisions about laws and regulations that have been made at the highest level of central governments and that were missed right in the start by most people."

Responding to Mr Wrack’s comments, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "We will never forget the 72 lives lost at Grenfell and remain absolutely committed to securing justice for the bereaved, survivors and the wider community.

"In the government’s manifesto, we set out our commitment to improving building safety, including accelerating cladding remediation, ensuring anyone responsible for the building safety crisis pays and better protecting leaseholders."