Debate on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report

A general debate on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report is scheduled for 2 December 2024 in the Chamber.

On 14 June 2017 a fire broke out at Grenfell Tower, a 24 storey residential housing block in North Kensington, London. The fire led to the deaths of 72 people ranging in age from 6 months to 84 years. Their names and stories are described a BBC article on The 72 victims killed by the Grenfell Tower fire (4 September 2024).

Theresa May, then Prime Minister, announced a public inquiry would be set up into the Grenfell Tower fire, to be chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick. The inquiry held over 300 public hearings and received over 1,600 witness statements. The Phase 1 report was published in October 2019 and focused on how the fire started and events on the night of the fire.

On 4 September 2024, the inquiry published its Phase 2 report. This focused on the underlying causes of the disaster, including the decisions made in relation to critical aspects of the design and construction of the cladding system, the adequacy of the regulatory regime and the response of central and local government. On the same day, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that the government would look at the inquiry’s recommendations in detail and respond in full within six months.

The Phase 2 Report concluded that overall, “the fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them”. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has concluded that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable.

This debate pack summarises the key conclusions and recommendations of the Phase 2 Report, responses from the organisations affected by the inquiry and some of the actions that the government has taken to improve the fire safety of buildings since the fire. It also includes recent press and parliamentary material.