Morning Briefing: three charged over Grenfell fraud

In the news

As reported by the BBC and others, the three men will appear before magistrates later today charged with fraud by false representation, while a fourth man has been charged with drug offences.

The charges came after the Metropolitan Police arrested eight men and one woman in dawn raids on Thursday.

It was a busy day for the Met yesterday, with the force also revealing that it is investigating the London Fire Brigade (LFB) over its use of the ‘stay put’ policy at Grenfell.

The first week of evidence at the Grenfell Inquiry came to an end yesterday, with the focus firmly on the fire service’s response. Fire chiefs told the inquiry that there was “no obvious and safe alternative” to the stay put strategy. Both the LFB and the Fire Brigades Union have also strongly denied claims that firefighters could have displayed unconscious racism during the fire.

You can read our own report of day four of the inquiry here.

Meanwhile, The Guardian carries a piece attacking a controversial essay on Grenfell by the novelist Andrew O’Hagan, which appeared in the London Review of Books last week. It is not the first time O’Hagan’s 60,000-word report has come in for criticism.

Away from Grenfell, today’s Inside Housing carries exclusive research outlining the scale of the sexual harassment problem in the sector. Nearly a quarter of respondents to our survey said they had experienced unwanted sexual advances at work, while more than half had heard inappropriate comments.

Away from home, The New York Times carries an interesting report on the rise of modular housebuilding in the US.