An unbelievable seven years after the Grenfell fire, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry finally published the phase 2 report on 4 September 2024, but there has been no accountability, no prosecutions and none promised in the near future. Why, and what changes are needed?

Eleven years ago, in 2013, I acted at an inquest for the three families bereaved by another tower block fire caused by flammable cladding in which three women and three children died. The Lakanal House fire happened in July 2009. I will never forget the trauma of going to see the burnt-out remains of the tower with my surveyor, Sam Webb, and seeing the flat where a young woman died while still on a 999 call (this happened again in Grenfell), and the tiny bathroom where the other two terrified women and their children died.

It took three-and-a-half years for the inquest in that case to happen because the Crown Prosecution Service – under Keir Starmer – took that long to decide nobody would be prosecuted. Despite the brilliant job done by my barrister, John Hendy KC, in exposing the role of the flammable cladding in causing and spreading the fire, there were no prosecutions after the inquest either.

When Grenfell happened, I was devastated, but I thought at least now a public inquiry would not have to wait for a prosecution decision and could conclude speedily, giving ammunition for any prosecutions. But that has not happened, and it is said that, shockingly, it will take at least another two years for prosecutions to be considered. What has gone wrong?

First, public inquiries have become too unwieldy and remote from victims. For this, I partially blame the Inquiries Act 2005. Specifically, counsel for the families were barred by that Act from full participation by asking questions of witnesses. This is just not right. Before the Act, John Hendy, instructed by me, appeared for the victims of the Southall and Ladbroke Grove train crashes, and both inquiries concluded in little more than a year and a half, even with his full participation.

Second, the issue of accountability is far wider than can be addressed by criminal prosecutions. Successive governments under Tony Blair and David Cameron ignored warnings about flammable cladding, downgraded safety and Cameron even promised a ‘bonfire of red tape’. His housing secretary, Eric Pickles, put in the most disgracefully callous appearance at the inquiry, dismissing the recommendations of the Lakanal House fire inquest.

Aside from central government, local government – the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea – was also hugely to blame. Even after the disaster, it failed to look after survivors properly.

Third, where the culprits are corporate enterprises, and possibly multinational ones, personal responsibility becomes difficult to pin down. I once used to think that corporate manslaughter prosecutions were the answer, but after the law was changed, they were still hardly ever brought and then only against small companies.

One suggestion I have is that the law could be changed to allow juries to award exemplary damages against private corporations, as in the US. After the Lockerbie disaster, the airline Pan Am went bust after paying out huge damages. In the UK, however, damages payable under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 for wrongful deaths are embarrassingly low, so much so that it is much cheaper to kill someone than to injure them. In the end, the best way to get at private corporations that kill for profit may be to make them pay very large sums to victims.

We also need governments that really care about the disadvantaged, about disabled people, about Black and ethnic minorities, and about the poor. The most disgraceful sight of all, recently, was of MPs rushing out of the Commons to avoid hearing about Grenfell.

The current government should not just sit around and wait for prosecution decisions. It must urgently get flammable cladding removed from all buildings and get personal emergency evacuation plans in place for all disabled people in social housing – I was shocked to learn how many local authorities have none. (Over 40 per cent of disabled Grenfell Tower residents died in the fire.)

But I also suggest that the government urgently looks at compensation provision for victims’ families in all future disasters, as well as at the format of future public inquiries. The new attorney general, Lord Hermer KC, could perhaps consider this initially.

In the meantime, I really hope there will be some accountability for all the anguish and suffering of Grenfell families and survivors. Some government compensation for its role in the disaster would help.