Sir Keir apologised on behalf of the government, saying the disaster should “never have happened”.
Kensington and Chelsea Council leader Elizabeth Campbell, who took on her role shortly after the fire, told the that she accepted all the findings of the report.
“The first thing I want to do is apologise to the bereaved and survivors’ community for the fact the council failed them,” she said.
“The council failed them before the fire, the council failed them on the night of the fire, and the council failed them in the aftermath of the fire.
“It failed to keep people safe, it failed to protect people and it didn’t listen, and for all those things I apologise.”
Grenfell United said previous governments had “aided corporations, facilitating them to profit and dictate regulation”, and it called for some of the firms involved to be banned from government contracts.
The group said the report marked a “significant chapter” since the fire but members felt justice had “not been delivered”.
Among the key findings of the report were:
-
US firm Arconic, manufacturer of the Reynobond 55 cladding which experts at the inquiry said was “by far the largest contributor” to the fire, deliberately concealed the true extent of the danger of using its product
Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick said the deaths had been “all avoidable” and the tower’s residents had been “badly failed over a number of years and in a number of different ways”.
Not all of the named organisations and companies, he added, bore the “same degree of responsibility for the disaster”, with some showing “dishonesty and greed” while others were simply incompetent.
The report said Arconic had concealed the results of fire tests which revealed very poor ratings for cladding installed as folded cassettes.
In response to the report, Arconic rejected “any claim” that its subsidiary Arconic Architectural Products had “sold an unsafe product”.
The inquiry also found fault with Celotex and Kingspan, which both made insulation.
Celotex said it had “reviewed and improved” process controls, quality management and its approach to marketing.
Kingspan said it had “long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part” of its UK insulation business.
London Fire Brigade Commissioner Andy Roe said the fire service was “not complacent” and would continue to act on the inquiry’s findings.
