No one should have died in the Grenfell Tower fire. They did, according to the final Inquiry Report out today, because of failings, incompetence, Dishonesty And Greed at almost every level governments, construction contractors, Cladding And Insulation firms, the local council, the tenant management organisation, the architect and the London Fire brigade. Tonight well talk to survivors and to those who lost Loved Ones and ask What Happens Next . Welcome to newsnight. Tonights programme is about the absolutely scathing conclusions of the final Inquiry Report published today into the Grenfell Tower fire. With us this evening natasha elcock, chair of Grenfell United, which represents some of the families of victims and survivors. Natasha lived in The Tower on the 11th Floor and lost her uncle, steven power. Karim mussilhy is here. Hes the Vice Chair of Grenfell United his Uncle Hesham Rahman died that night. Tiago alves grew up in The Tower he escaped from the 13th Floor with his mum, dad
decides with another group of passengers to rent a car drive 20 hours to their destination together. that is exactly what some of our guests tonight did. in a little while, i will introduce you to this group of total travel total strangers, who had a quite an adventure when they decided to drive from tampa to cleveland together and they reported their trip and it went viral. meanwhile, ten billion people across the south are under freeze alerts. and the death toll from the storm is dry saying. at least 49 people have died across the country. 27 of those are in the buffalo area. authorities fear that they will find more bodies in cars as they begin to dig out from what is being called the worst storm in the region s history. you can see some of it there. while police have their hands full with rescues, stores are being looted. i will talk to a supermarket messenger who spent christmas eve washing his store who got broken into. i want to bring in now cnn s miguel marquez, he s
headline i m intrigue, the novelist in me is intrigued by the headline, describing it as a fire sale. and that connection is quite scary. but as often happens with the economics, and certainly in terms of fiscal situations, one person s fire sale is another person s opportunity. and the ft quotes several private equity firms who are talking about how these economic conditions are actually very attractive for people who want to buy some of those assets, and some of the pension funds will have to deep dig to get more liquid assets like property. but for everyone who s having to make a sale, there s also someone who will have to make a purchase. and that is how the markets operate. and i think what worries me is a former investment banker about what s been happening over the last two weeks is this sense that everything is a snapshot and looking very scary, whereas if you can just hold your nerve and take a step back, and wait for things to settle, what you often find is the ma