The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast

“I believe that I undertook the risk assessments to the best of my ability”. The fire risk assessor Carl Stokes gave his final day of evidence at the inquiry. It emerged he had told the organisation which ran Grenfell Tower that the cladding installed on the building met regulations – despite doing no investigations of his own.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

“Is that not a very incurious approach for a fire risk assessor?”. Carl Stokes was the fire risk assessor responsible for carrying out checks on Grenfell Tower from 2009 to 2017. Part of his job was to check doors; many flat entrance doors did not have self-closing mechanisms at the time of the fire. The inquiry heard how Carl Stokes copied and pasted information across different fire risk assessments. He accepted they contained mistakes because he did not read what he signed off.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

Producer: Sharon Hemans

Researcher: May Cameron

Studio Mix: Gareth Jones

“I think we lacked a little humanity”. The inquiry heard from elected councillors at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Councillor Quentin Marshall said the council “could have done better” after it emerged he sent an email saying he was “not massively sympathetic to general ‘it’s all terrible’ complaints” about the refurbishment works at Grenfell tower. Leader of RBKC Nick Paget-Brown and Councillors Rock Feilding-Mellen, Sam Mackover and Judith Blakeman also gave evidence.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

“Getting out of this building by the stairs is extremely difficult”. The Director of Housing, the Executive Director of Operations and the Head of Housing Commissioning at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea gave evidence. The inquiry heard how some recommendations after another high rise cladding fire weren’t implemented, and that the council did not collect data on how the Tenant Management Organisation, which ran Grenfell Tower, performed in terms of fire safety.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

‘Stay put’ was relied on despite evacuations after fires in other TMO properties. The TMO’s Peter Maddison and Teresa Brown were questioned about the organisation’s relationship with residents and why no personal emergency evacuation plans were drawn up for residents with disabilities. Expert witness Jonathan Sakula told the inquiry the dangers of using combustible cladding on high rise buildings were widely known in the construction industry after a number of cladding fires around the world.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

‘Let’s hope our luck holds out and there are no fires in the meantime’. Staff from the Tenant Management Organisation, which managed Grenfell Tower, returned to give evidence at the inquiry. The TMO’s Peter Maddison and Claire Williams were asked why important fire safety measures, such as smoke vents and self-closing fire doors, were left broken or non-compliant for significant periods of time. Two other TMO staff, Siobhan Rumble and Nicola Bartholomew, both said they never discussed evacuation plans for residents with disabilities because the building had a ‘stay put’ policy.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

‘They didn’t treat us with respect or humanity or empathy and if they had done, we wouldn’t be sitting here now’. Former residents of Grenfell Tower described how the Tenant Management Organisation ran the building. One of the main campaigners for safety at Grenfell Tower, Edward Daffarn, repeatedly questioned fire safety matters within the building and residents with disabilities described being given no instruction about fire safety.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

This week the inquiry will hear evidence from residents, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Tenant Management Organisation. Groups affiliated to the bereaved, survivors and residents have called for the inquiry to investigate the role race and class played at Grenfell. In this episode relatives of residents who lived in the tower explain why they think it's important for the inquiry to explore whether discrimination and class played a role in the deaths of their loved ones.

Grenfell Tower ‘a landmark act of discrimination against disabled and vulnerable people’. The inquiry was presented with opening statements for Module 3 of the inquiry. This section will examine the management of Grenfell Tower, including the fire risk assessments carried out and how residents’ complaints were dealt with. Legal representatives for the bereaved, survivors and residents of Grenfell Tower said resident involvement in the refurbishment of the building was ‘tokenistic’ and accused the person who carried out the fire risk assessment on the tower of inventing qualifications.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble

‘Would it be fair… to say that you were set up by others …as Kingspan’s useful idiot’? Kingspan Insulation’s Managing Director Richard Burnley gave evidence this week. Questioned about Kingspan’s conduct after the fire at Grenfell Tower when it held a private meeting to lobby MPs, Richard Burnley denied the company accessed political power for its own commercial gain.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble