The fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017 was one of the UK’s worst modern disasters. Seventy-two people died after a fire broke out in one of the apartments and quickly spread to the floors above as combustible cladding on the outside of the building went up in flames.
The Grenfell Tower inquiry was set up to establish the factors that led to the tragedy and to make recommendations for how to avoid anything similar ever happening again. It has heard from hundreds of witnesses and has looked at the disaster from multiple viewpoints: from the residents, the fire brigade, the developers and the cladding firms. Now in the next phase the inquiry will begin hearing from the politicians who set the regulatory framework that builders and contractors worked within.
The Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, Robert Booth, tells Nosheen Iqbal that the Conservative party’s policy of “ripping up red tape” in the coalition years will come under close scrutiny. The government has already issued an apology to victims and their families for failings in the lead-up to the tragedy. The final phase of the inquiry will see the politicians overseeing the building regulations cross-examined for the first time.
Nosheen also hears from Tiago Alves, a university student who escaped from his home on that night in June 2017. And she hears from Karim Mussilhy, who lost his uncle to the fire.
Photograph: @MuradQureshiLDN/Twitter/PA
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