By Jerome Thomas, Thursday Apr 15, 2021
The deaths of 72 people at Grenfell Tower in 2017 were avoidable.
The problem with the cladding installed at Grenfell was known across the world, long before its installation. In the UK there was strong pressure from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fire Safety and fire industry representatives to act on that and associated risks.
In spite of that pressure, in 2014 the then minister Lib Dem Stephen Williams in the Conservative coalition government, said: “I have neither seen nor heard anything that suggests the consideration of these specific potential changes is urgent and I am not willing to disrupt the work of this department by asking that these matters are brought forward.”