Companies which committed 'horrific failings' in Grenfell tragedy to be excluded from government contracts

Keir Starmer has announced that he will take the first steps towards preventing companies that contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 from being awarded government contracts.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report, published today, found that the government was aware of the dangers of flammable cladding on high-rise buildings ten years before the tragedy but had failed to act on this knowledge, and that those who made and sold the materials had “deliberately concealed” the risks.

A devastating fire broke out in the Grenfell Tower high-rise block in Kensington, London, on 14 June 2017, killing 72 people and injuring more than 70 others. It was the worst residential fire in the UK since the Blitz of World War II.

The new report set out how the residents of the tower had been failed by many organisations, including the manufacturing companies, and local and central government. 

In a House of Commons statement this afternoon, Starmer said the government would write to all the companies found by the inquiry to have committed “horrific failings”, as the “first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts”.

Starmer also apologised on behalf of the British state to everyone affected by the fire.

“It should never have happened,” he said.

“The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty, protect you and your loved ones, the people that we are here to serve. And I am deeply sorry.”

Leader of the Opposition Rishi Sunak also extended his “deepest apologies” to the victims and families. 

Starmer said that the government would be considering all the recommendations laid out by the second report, including establishing a single construction regulator to take control of overall regulation of the construction industry, an “urgent” review of the definition of a higher-risk building, and a reconsideration of the total reliance on “stav put” advice.

He added that the government was now addressing a recommendation from the inquiry’s first report in 2019 to introduce a new residential, personal emergency evacuation plan.

Starmer said that the speed at which dangerous cladding was being removed from buildings was “far, far too slow”.

“We'll take the necessary steps to speed this up,” he said, laying out a number of reforms that the government would pursue, including forcing freeholders to assess their buildings and enter remediation schemes within a set time period, and reforming the construction products industry so that homes are made of safe materials.

“Today is a long awaited day of truth, but it must now lead to a day of justice, justice for the victims and the families of Grenfell, but also a moment to reflect on the state of social justice in our country,” the Prime Minister continued.

“This tragedy poses fundamental questions about the kind of country we are, a country where the voices of working class people and those of colour have been repeatedly ignored and dismissed, a country where tenants of a social housing block in one of the richest parts of the land are treated like second class citizens.”

Having visited Grenfell privately two weeks ago, Starmer said he had felt a “sense of anger” and that it had left him with a “profound and very personal determination to make the legacy of Grenfell Tower one of the defining changes to our country that I want to make as Prime Minister”.

“We will deliver a generational shift in the safety and quality of housing for everyone in this country and in the memory of Grenfell, we will change our country – not just a change in policy and regulation, although that must of course have a place, but a profound shift in culture and behaviour.”

Delivering a press conference on Wednesday morning, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, chair of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, said: “The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable, and those who lived in the tower were badly failed over a number of years and in a number of different ways, by those who were responsible for ensuring the safety of the building and its occupants.”

He listed the central government, the tenant management organisation (TMO), the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the material manufacturers for the building, those who certified the materials, the architect, the local authorities, the Building Control Department and the London Fire Brigade as all holding responsibility for the disaster.

“All contributed to it in one way or another, in most cases through incompetence, but in some cases through dishonesty and greed.

“The failings can be traced back over many years, and our efforts to get to the bottom of what went wrong and account for the length of our report and the time it has taken us to produce it.”

He described “systematic dishonesty” on the part of manufacturers, involving deliberate manipulation of the testing processes and “calculated attempts” to mislead purchasers into thinking materials complied with statutory guidance when they did not.

Moore-Bick added that it was clear that relations between the TMO and residents were “marked by distrust, antagonism and increasingly bitter confrontation”, and found this reflected a serious failure on the TMO’s part.

The new Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater Joe Powell previously told PoliticsHome that the Grenfell tragedy should act as a “powerful reminder for a new government that this whole building safety crisis has to be top of the agenda”.

In a statement today, he called on the Labour government to accept the report’s recommendations in full and “commit to a transparent and accountable plan for their implementation”.

The families of the victims echoed this demand, with Grenfell United saying in response to the government in a statement: "You must become a government with the power and ability to separate yourself from the construction industry and corporate lobbying, a government that prioritises and tackles structural injustices and social and racial inequalities of the people you serve."

Grenfell Tower Inquiry panel member Ali Akbor said that the government's “focus on deregulation” had “dominated the department's thinking, such that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded”.

“The deregulation agenda had a parallel impact on the social housing sector, particularly in terms of consumer standards and protection for tenants,” he continued.

“The effects of that can be seen in the many failings of the TMO, which we set out in our report and which were not prevented or addressed by the regulatory system then in place.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said today's publication must not represent “the end” of the process, and that “those responsible must now be immediately held to account for their systematic dishonesty, corporate greed, institutional indifference and neglect”.

He said: “Companies found to have been to blame by the Inquiry must no longer receive any public contracts, as the police and CPS look into the bringing of criminal charges.”