Grenfell Tower is to be demolished, bereaved families are understood to have been told by UK deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
Ms Rayner, also the housing secretary, met relatives and survivors on Wednesday evening and “announced the decision that the tower will have to be carefully deconstructed”, according to a spokesperson for Grenfell Next of Kin.
More details are expected to be given by the government this week. Previously, it said there would be no changes to the council block site in north Kensington before the eighth anniversary of the disaster, which claimed 72 lives in June 2017.
Concerns have been raised over how many loved ones were spoken to before the new decision was taken. Many families have said that the structure should remain in place until there are criminal prosecutions over the failings that led to the fire. The near decade-long wait for justice has been described as “unbearable” by some.
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Grenfell United, which represents some of the survivors and bereaved families of the disaster, said on Wednesday evening that the voices of the bereaved were being ignored.
“We’ve said this to every secretary of state for housing since the very beginning: consult the bereaved and survivors meaningfully before reaching a decision on the tower,” the group said.
“Angela Rayner could not give a reason for her decision to demolish the tower.”
What remains of the tower has stood in place since 2017, with a covering on the building featuring a large green heart accompanied by the words “forever in our hearts”.
A government spokesperson said: “The priority for the deputy prime minister is to meet with and write to the bereaved, survivors and the immediate community to let them know her decision on the future of the Grenfell Tower.
“This is a deeply personal matter for all those affected, and the deputy prime minister is committed to keeping their voice at the heart of this.”
In May 2024, prosecutors and police said investigators would need until the end of 2025 to complete their inquiry, with final decisions on potential criminal charges by the end of 2026.
The final report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry, published in September, concluded the disaster was the result of “decades of failure” by the government and the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
The west London tower block was covered in combustible products because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms that made and sold the cladding and insulation, the inquiry chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, said.
The “simple truth” was that all the deaths were avoidable and that those who lived in the tower were “badly failed” by authorities, Moore-Bick said. “In most cases through incompetence but, in some cases, through dishonesty and greed,” he added.
Irish multinational Kingspan made false claims about insulation used on the facade of the Grenfell Tower in London, a report on the disaster found in September 2024.
The company “knowingly created a false market” and claimed the product passed tests allowing it to be used on high-rise buildings, the report said.
The Cavan-based group’s Kooltherm K15 plastic foam insulation board was used on about 5 per cent of the facade, unknown to the company, during a refurbishment of the London tower, completed in 2016.
Kingspan has repeatedly highlighted that inquiry expert witnesses provided unequivocal evidence that US metals giant Arconic’s ACM cladding was primarily responsible for the rate and extent of fire spread.
Kingspan issued a 181-word reaction to the publication of the report, saying it “has long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part of our UK insulation business”.
“These were in no way reflective of how we conduct ourselves as a group, then or now,” it said. It extended its “deepest sympathies” to those affected.
Separately to the inquiry, the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission has been consulting on plans for a permanent memorial in the area of the tower. It set out recommendations for a “sacred space”, designed to be a “peaceful place for remembering and reflecting”, in a 2023 report.
The commission said it expects the memorial design to be sufficiently developed to enable a planning application to be submitted in late 2026, with a shortlist of five potential designs for it being drawn last month. – Guardian
