Decades of failure led to the fatal fire in Grenfell Tower, according to the final report

The high-rise block in west London was clad with flammable products due to the “systematic dishonesty” of the companies that manufactured and sold the cladding and insulation, said the chairman of the inquiry, Sir Martin Moore-Bick.

He denounced “conscious and persistent” manipulation of fire safety tests, misrepresentation of test data and misleading the market.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the report identified “significant and widespread failings”, adding that the government would carefully review the recommendations “to ensure that such a tragedy cannot happen again”.

The seven-volume, nearly 1,700-page final report of the investigation into the disaster detailed in devastating detail how those responsible had ignored warnings about previous fires and failed to act accordingly.

Sir Martin said: “We conclude that the Grenfell Tower fire was the culmination of decades of inaction by central government and other responsible bodies in the construction industry who failed to carefully consider the dangers associated with the use of combustible materials in the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and failed to act on the information available to them.”

Addressing bereaved families and survivors on Wednesday as the report was released, he said the “simple truth” was that all the deaths were preventable and that authorities had “badly failed” the tower’s residents, “in most cases through incompetence, but in some through dishonesty and greed.”

Grenfell United, which represents some of the bereaved and survivors of the fire, said the report “demonstrates a lack of competence, understanding and a fundamental failure to carry out the most basic duties of care” and called for some of the construction companies involved to be excluded from government contracts.

However, they added that while the final publication marked a “significant chapter” in the years since the fire, “justice has not yet been done.” Police and prosecutors must “ensure that those truly responsible are held accountable and brought to justice.”

The Metropolitan Police said it “operates under a different legal framework and therefore cannot simply use the report’s findings as evidence to bring charges,” but promised to go through the report “line by line.”

A government deregulation campaign that began years before the fire resulted in concerns about the safety of human life being “ignored, postponed or disregarded” – despite the devastating fire in Lakanal House that killed six people in 2009.

In the years that followed, the bureaucracy-reduction program was “enthusiastically supported” by some responsible politicians, the report says.

As early as 2016, a year before the Grenfell fire, the government was “well aware” of the risks of using combustible facade panels and insulation, particularly in high-rise buildings, but “did not act on its knowledge”.

Recommendations from the coroner regarding the deaths at Lakanal House were “not treated with the necessary degree of urgency” and “legitimate concerns” were “repeatedly met with a defensive and dismissive attitude by officials and some ministers,” the report said.

The facade cladding manufacturer Arconic and the insulation manufacturers Kingspan and Celotex were particularly heavily criticized.

Arconic was found to have “deliberately concealed from the market the true extent of the danger” associated with the use of its cladding product, particularly on high-rise buildings.

Since 2005 and even after the fire investigation began, Kingspan has “deliberately created a false market for insulation materials” for use in buildings over 18 metres high, the report says.

Celotex then pursued a “dishonest plan to mislead its customers and the market as a whole” in an attempt to penetrate the market created by Kingspan, Sir Martin concluded.

He said: “A very important reason why Grenfell Tower was clad in combustible materials was the systematic dishonesty of those who manufactured and sold the ventilated facade panels and insulation products.”

The report states that these companies have “pursued deliberate and persistent strategies to manipulate testing procedures, misrepresent test data, and mislead the market.”

Grenfell United called on the government to exclude Arconic, Kingspan, Celotex and contractor Rydon from central and local government procurement processes and “finally start acting in the interests of the British public”.

While the initial investigation report in 2019 found that the London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) performance was “below the standards set out in its own policies or national guidance”, the final report concluded that while the fire service had learned lessons from the Lakanal House fire, its failure “lay in its inability to respond effectively”.

This failure has “many causes,” including a “chronic lack of effective leadership,” coupled with an “excessive emphasis on processes and a culture of complacency,” the report says.

Sir Martin made 58 recommendations and concluded that the construction industry had become “too complex and fragmented”.

He proposed setting up a single regulator responsible for regulating construction products, testing and certification, and overseeing construction control, and that the government should combine all fire safety-related functions into one ministry headed by a single Secretary of State.

The Building Safety Act, particularly the definition of a “higher risk building”, needs to be reviewed to take into account the likely presence of vulnerable people, he said.

The report criticised the government and local council’s response in the days following the fire as “confused, slow, indecisive and piecemeal” and recommended revising emergency preparedness guidelines.

The chairman also urged the government to establish a fire and rescue college. He said the Fire and Rescue Services Inspectorate should inspect the LFB “as soon as reasonably possible”.

Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy said: “I can hardly imagine the impact of such a lengthy police investigation on the bereaved and survivors, but we have a chance to conduct our investigation properly.

“We will conduct our investigations thoroughly and conscientiously and as expeditiously as possible.”