‘After Lakanal fire in Camberwell with the loss of three women and children opportunities on safety were squandered’

13th September 2024

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Contents

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The release of the Grenfell Inquiry report this week is a stark reminder of the terrible cost of failure.

My heart goes out to the survivors, the families of the 72 people who lost their lives, and the wider Grenfell community

Children, parents, friends and neighbours died in a horrific tragedy that should never have happened.

The report makes clear that each one of those 72 deaths was entirely avoidable, and the residents of Grenfell Tower were let down time and again by the Government and institutions that should have protected them.

It is a source of national shame that the dangers of combustible cladding were known to companies for decades.

Residents had been raising the alarm for years but were ignored and disregarded – nothing was done then – and still no one has been held to account now.

The Grenfell community has campaigned tirelessly and demonstrated enormous strength and courage in giving evidence to the Inquiry and in their ongoing fight for justice and systemic change.

This report must mark the turning point in our national story.

Be a turning point for accountability and justice.

It must be the moment we reflect and act on the state of social justice in our country. Where working class people and people of colour have their voices ignored and dismissed.

How residents in a housing block in one of the richest parts of the land were treated as second class citizens. How we treat those who raise safety concerns at the heart of our most powerful institutions.

In Peckham this month we are also deeply saddened by the passing of the 15th anniversary of the Lakanal House fire. The loss of three women and three children still weighs heavily on our community.

The Grenfell report lays bare what we all knew – that in the years which followed Lakanal the Conservative government squandered opportunities to bring in the regulations needed to prevent another scandal. The pain of this knowledge is acutely felt here today.

This Labour government has vowed we will learn these lessons once and for all.

All companies implicated in the Grenfell report will be banned from receiving government contracts. The Metropolitan Police and prosecutors will be supported in completing their investigations and to bring criminal sanctions where appropriate. The work to remove existing dangerous cladding across the country will be accelerated and more support put in place for leaseholders trapped in dangerous flats.

The Government will consider all 58 of the Inquiry’s recommendations in detail and will respond in full within six months. The 72 people lost that night can never be forgotten. Actions, not words, honour their memory and ensure what happened on 14 June 2017 never happens again.

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