Grenfell guilty must now be prosecuted, campaigners urge as report published

Criminal prosecutions of those responsible for the Grenfell Tower fire must follow the publication of the report into the disaster on Wednesday, MPs and survivors have said.

Labour MPs also said there needed to be more “teeth in the system” to stop freeholders and developers from dragging their feet over remediating unsafe cladding.

Wednesday will see the public inquiry chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick release its final report on the Grenfell fire which killed 72 people in 2017.

While there is an ongoing criminal investigation into the disaster involving 19 companies or organisations and 58 individuals, prosecutions have been delayed because the police have said they need to be able to consider the contents of the final report.

Joe Powell, the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater, where Grenfell is located, said that after the publication of the report the Government needed to do everything in its power to “accelerate” prosecutions “as much as possible”.

Mr Powell told i that the release of the report “ends this unfortunate timeline sequencing issue with the criminal investigation”.

“For a lot of residents, they felt that they had assurances at the time that the inquiry wouldn’t delay the criminal investigation but clearly it has,” he said.

“What the government can do specifically on justice is to make sure that they put their full weight behind getting to prosecutions as soon as possible.”

Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent East, said she agreed, while Barry Gardiner, the MP for Brent West, told i that prosecutions would “would certainly send a message”.

Justice4Grenfell, which campaigns on behalf of the bereaved families, said in a statement that the report would be “another litmus test of whether the system can hold those responsible to account”.

“Those responsible must face the law as ordinary citizens and not be shielded by corporate alliances or political status,” it added.

Outside of criminal prosecutions, Mr Powell said the Government should look at “immediate implications” for any companies found responsible for the disaster, including barring their “access to public contracts”.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has vowed to end “foot dragging” when it comes to the removal of unsafe cladding from other buildings.

Mr Powell said there had been” far too many buildings where it’s just kind of drifted”. “Even when freeholders have been issued with remediation orders, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough teeth in the system to then ensure that happens quickly,” he said.

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Mr Gardiner urged ministers to “put in place statutory provision to take over blocks where the remediation is not completed by a deadline for the Government to set”.

“There are far too many developers, owners, managers who are deliberately evading their responsibilities and we need now to put an end to that,” he said.

“It’s not simply about cladding it’s about all the fire stopping defects, all the remediation work for fire safety which needs to be done in so many buildings that were simply built without proper building control.

He added: “The Government needs to take powers to itself if necessary to take over the ownership of those buildings, to seize those buildings where the owners do not comply by a deadline and to effect the work and then make sure the costs of the work are then paid by the sale of the building.”

i understands that the Government will hold back from announcing the full details of its policy response tomorrow so that the focus will be on the survivors and families of the bereaved receiving the truth about what happened.