Grenfell Tower Inquiry Costs Revealed

• Content
• News
• Grenfell Tower Inquiry Costs Revealed

14 June 2023

Financial statements published by the Grenfell Inquiry show that its total expenditure is at £170 million.

Total expenditure for the period 01 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 totals £32 million. 41 per cent of this was spent on legal costs for victims of the fire and others.

The Public Inquiry – What’s the Latest?

The public inquiry began on 15 June 2017, chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick. Phase 1 focused on the factual narrative of the events on the night and was published in 2019. The report highlighted the use of combustible material in the external wall of Grenfell Tower, which contributed to the quick spread of the fire. It also raised the fact that most London Fire Brigade officers attending the scene were unaware of the dangers of cladding fires in high-rise buildings and not adequately trained.

Other conclusions by Sir Moore-Bick include:

• Crews who visited Grenfell Tower during its refurbishment were not trained to carry out the appropriate fire safety inspections properly
• No plans for the internal layout of the building were available to the London Fire Brigade until the later stages of the fire
• When the firefighters attended the fire at Grenfell Tower they were unable to operate the mechanism that should have allowed them to take control of the lifts
• Some of the equipment in use by the London Fire Brigade, in particular the radio equipment, was unreliable or in some cases failed to work at all
• The landings in the staircase at Grenfell Tower were not clearly marked with the relevant floor number and where floor numbers were marked they did not reflect the additional floors created during the refurbishment. As a result, firefighters were unable to identify floors clearly when carrying out firefighting or search and rescue operations within the building
• ineffective fire doors allowed smoke and toxic gases to spread through the building more quickly than should have
• There were no plans in place for evacuating Grenfell Tower

Phase 2 of the inquiry examines the causes of these events, including how Grenfell Tower came to be in a condition which allowed the fire to spread in the way identified by Phase 1. 

This part of the inquiry heard 85 weeks of evidence, stretching across almost three years and the final report remains unpublished.

Picture: a photograph of the top of Grenfell Tower showing a green heart and the words "Grenfell, forever in our hearts" Image Credit: Unsplash

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 14 June 2023

Share

Related Articles