Ministers’ ‘unbridled passion for deregulation’ made them ‘junior partner’ of construction industry
Ministers may be guilty of a “deliberate cover-up” over the dangers posed by combustible materials before the Grenfell Tower fire and of allowing private companies to exploit building regulations in “one of the greatest scandals of our time”, the public inquiry has heard.
Successive administrations were responsible for “collusion” with the construction industry to suppress the results of investigations into earlier cladding fires, including at Lakanal House in south London in 2009 where six people died, said Stephanie Barwise QC, representing the bereaved and survivors at the opening of the final stage of the inquiry into the June 2017 Grenfell disaster.
