Disaster report is opportunity that cannot be ignored

IT'S been seven years since the catastrophic Grenfell Tower fire caused the deaths of 72 people in west London.

- Esther Krakue

And during that time, we've seen various organisations shamefully play hot potato with responsibility passing the buck to anyone within spitting distance. Finally, after two Governments, five Prime Ministers, a pandemic, a global recession, and a whopping £170million inquiry, the report is out. And, as suspected, its revelations are shocking.

Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick blamed everything from the "systematic dishonesty" of companies that manufactured the flammable cladding to ministers, officials and regulators who put "commercial interests" above building safety.

To make matters worse, it was confirmed residents' legitimate concerns were ignored. It doesn't get more damning than that. And heads must roll.

However, these findings beg several questions. Firstly, why did such obvious conclusions take seven years and hundreds of millions of pounds? From the beginning, many of Sir Martin's findings were crystal clear.

THE tragedy bore all the hallmarks of a blaze eight years earlier: the 2009 Lakanal House fire in Camberwell. Like Grenfell, it claimed multiple lives. It, too, was caused by a faulty electrical appliance and exacerbated by flammable exterior cladding.

And like Grenfell, a public inquest was commissioned.