Cladding works after Grenfell need to speed up – PM

Sir Keir Starmer says he is “frustrated” at how long it is taking to deal with building safety and cladding, following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report this week.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the prime minister said he accepts it is his “duty”, and that his government “will accelerate the programme”, when questioned about the number of people still living in unsafe buildings.

The report found successive governments had “ignored, delayed or disregarded” concerns about housing safety.

It comes as former housing secretary Michael Gove apologised to victims, saying they were let down by governments, including his own, for not responding to the tragedy with the “grip required”.

On 14 June 2017, the fire in Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, west London, killed 72 people and destroyed 151 homes.

Within minutes of it breaking out, it had spread to cladding that had been added to the exterior of the 23-storey building’s exterior.

Speaking in No 10’s Cabinet Room, Sir Keir said building owners and developers needed to “speed up and get on with it”.

“You can’t [take responsibility] in opposition because you simply don’t have access to the material – but we’re on it, and we will bring the same mindset that we brought to the disorder [summer riots],” he said.

The inquiry’s final report into the fire, published on Wednesday, found manufacturers of cladding and insulation “deliberately concealed” the fire risks they posed.

It said safety tests in 2001 revealed the type of cladding used on Grenfell Tower, “burned violently”. These results were kept confidential and the government did not tighten the rules.

When asked if he would like to see people jailed, Sir Keir responded: “The last thing I want to do is to prejudice any cases”.

The former chief prosecutor said he wants the police to complete their investigations and will support them in doing so.

‘No awareness’

In a column for The Sunday Times, Mr Gove – who served as Conservative housing secretary between 2021-24 – wrote that while there has been “change for the better” since the fire, “progress on the path towards justice has been painfully slow”.

Mr Gove also wrote that his attempts to punish companies linked to Grenfell were blocked by the Treasury.

“Efforts on my part to restrict the import of these companies’ products ran up against the commercial purism of Treasury Mandarin Brain,” he wrote.

BBC News has contacted the Treasury for comment.

The report, he added, highlights the need to pursue those who bear “the gravest responsibility for this tragedy with every weapon at the state’s disposal… [who] have still not shown proper awareness of their guilt, contrition for their crimes or restitution for their wrongs.”

The inquiry made 58 final recommendations, including for the construction industry, to the government, and firefighters, and while they are not legally binding, all have promised to consider them in full in what comes next.