Grenfell Tower fire inquiry final report to be published in September

The news comes less than a month before the seventh anniversary of the fire, which claimed 72 lives on June 14, 2017.

In an update on Thursday, the inquiry team said the phase two report will be published on Wednesday September 4.

The final hearing of the second phase of the inquiry, which examined how the tower block came to be in a condition that allowed the fire to spread, took place in November 2022.

The report into phase one, which focused on the factual narrative of the events on the night of the blaze, was published in October 2019.

It concluded the tower’s cladding did not comply with building regulations and was the “principal” reason for the rapid and “profoundly shocking” spread of the blaze.

The announcement of the publication date followed a separate update this week that bereaved families and survivors face waiting until the end of 2026 for a decision on potential criminal charges over the fire.

The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that their investigators need until the end of 2025 to finalise their inquiry, and prosecutors will then need a year to decide whether charges can be brought.

Grenfell United, an organisation representing many of the bereaved families and survivors, described that wait, which could stretch to a decade after the catastrophic fire, as “unbearable” and stressed the need to “see the people who perpetrated Grenfell held to account and charged for their crimes”.

The group, following the confirmed date for the inquiry report, said they “wait in anticipation of the findings”.

In a statement they said: “When the report is finally released, we need to know that Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s recommendations will be implemented by the new government in power.

“Nearly five years since the publication of the first report, the Tory Government has failed to implement four of the phase one recommendations.”

The group is calling for the establishment of an independent public body to be responsible for collating, analysing and following up on recommendations from inquiries into state-related deaths.

They said: “Hundreds of vital recommendations are made following inquiries and millions of pounds are spent, but what is the point if there is no system in place to make sure changes are made?”

The group said if recommendations following the fatal Lakanal House fire in south London in 2009 had been implemented “our experience on the 14th June could have been very different”.

The statement added: “The public inquiry phase two report will hopefully give us the truth we deserve, but it needs to bring the change we so desperately need to see. This change is the legacy for our loved ones. And to ensure no one suffers like us.”

A lawyer for the families of three people killed in the Grenfell fire said they “remain dismayed at the continued delays” in both bringing in measures to prevent a similar disaster and in holding those responsible accountable.

Emma Wilson, principal lawyer at Slater and Gordon, said: “While they welcome the opportunity for closure, our clients remain dismayed at the continued delays in implementing measures to ensure a disaster like Grenfell doesn’t happen again and bringing those responsible to justice.”

Acknowledging the delay in publication, having hoped to publish before the seventh anniversary, the inquiry team had previously described the “process of notifying those who may be subject to criticism in our report and considering their responses” as having been “significantly larger and more complex than we had originally expected”, having involved writing to some 250 people.

Over the course of both phases, the inquiry said it had held more than 300 hearings and received more than 1,600 witness statements.