Fire brigade has only implemented four of 29 Grenfell Inquiry recommendations, says report

It comes amid a failure on the part of the Home Office to implement a recommendation that disabled residents in high rises be provided with an evacuation plan, which they sought to water down amid industry lobbying, before a judicial review from bereaved family members.

A further recommendation for manual alarms has also been put onto the backburner by the government, meaning the means to evacuate a high-rise building is little different today than it was when Grenfell Tower caught fire in 2017.

The report incident commanders were able to use their discretion to use the new policy before it had been formally adopted.

HMICFRS, a Home Office body which inspects fire services around the UK, said it was impressed by the LFB’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which, it said, had affected the brigade’s ability to implement some of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s recommendations.

The report also found that the brigade’s new leadership was committed to taking action and that there was a sustained effort to understand the lessons from the fire.

A spokesperson for Grenfell United, a group representing bereaved family members and survivors of the fire, called the report “deeply concerning”.

Other recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that have not yet been implemented include amending policies to clearly distinguish between callers who are seeking advice and callers who are trapped and need rescuing, and providing a dedicated communication link between the senior officer in the control room and the incident commander at the site of the fire.

Failures to clearly pass information about the location of trapped residents between the call centre in Stratford and the teams on the ground in North Kensington was another aspect of the brigade’s response that was criticised by the inquiry.

The report comes despite Andy Roe, commissioner of the LFB, acknowledging in September that the brigade had not learned the right lessons from a previous fire at Lakanal House in 2009 and promising to become “transparent and relentless” in its efforts to make changes.

Matt Parr, inspector of constabulary and fire & rescue services, said: “I am encouraged by the brigade’s progress, especially over the past year, and we know the COVID-19 pandemic has caused some unavoidable delays. However, there is still a very long way to go – particularly on training for fires in high-rise residential buildings. As it stands, we are not clear how this work will be completed.

“The London Fire Brigade must now act quickly to show it has learned the lessons from Grenfell – not only to reassure victims, survivors and their families, but to ensure public safety.”

A spokesperson for Grenfell United added: “To hear that stay put is still in place and the fire service is no closer to a national evacuation policy is devastating for families who lost loved ones in Grenfell, for survivors who barely escaped with their lives, anyone who witnessed the tragedy on that night, and especially considering there are buildings still as dangerous as Grenfell Tower across the UK where inaction by the government means another tragedy could happen at anytime.

“As well as stay put, we urgently need to know there is change to how emergency calls are handled, too many families were not given call instructions and messages of who needed rescuing were not passed on. Many families have listened to those 999 calls and need to know that emergency calls would be handled differently today.

“Nearly four years on is a long time to wait for urgent change and with only four out of 29 recommendations being implemented is deeply concerning.”

Richard Mills, deputy commissioner of the LFB, said 17 recommendations are expected to be completed by next month.

“We know there is more we can do and must do to keep Londoners safe and we will continue to work hard, to not only complete all of the recommendations, but to continue our learning so that we can adapt and reduce the number and impact of fires,” he added.