Justice for those responsible for the 72 deaths in the Grenfell Tower fire may not come until the end of this decade, a former chief prosecutor has warned, as survivors voiced growing fury over building firms’ “arrogant” refusal to admit wrongdoing.
The public inquiry findings of “systematic dishonesty” by multimillion-dollar building companies involved in the tower’s disastrous refurbishment prompted a clamour for accelerated criminal charges this week, seven years on from the blaze.
Offences being considered include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, fraud, and health and safety offences, police have said.
But on Thursday, the former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald warned that the creaking criminal justice system meant any criminal trials may not begin before 2029, meaning verdicts could be pushed into the next decade.
“Unless processes are massively expedited, justice is a very long way away,” he said.
Bereaved relatives and survivors have called for charges to be expedited fearing that “perpetrators [are] literally getting away with murder”. Anthony Roncolato, the last person to escape the tower alive during the 2017 fire, warned of more “pain and distress” as the fear of fresh delays emerged.
“[Think of] the fathers and the mothers without their children, without their loved ones, and in many cases not only one person [lost] per family but two, three, four, five, six,” he said. “It’s just crazy. There has to be justice. They have to deliver.”
Macdonald’s warning that it could take a dozen years after the disaster before anyone is punished is based on the Metropolitan police claim that the force needs 12 to 18 months to go through the public inquiry findings before recommending charges.
On Wednesday, the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, Stuart Cundy, justified the wait, saying: “We have one chance to get our investigation right.”
The stark findings of the inquiry – which concluded that firms employed “deliberate and sustained strategies to … mislead the market” – have fuelled pressure to speed up charges.
On Thursday, former senior detectives questioned the Met’s tactics. “I don’t understand why it should take so long,” said Mike Barton, former chief constable of Durham police and former lead for crime operations for the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
“I don’t see what else the police have to do. They are not likely to uncover any new significant evidence now. I ran lots of inquiries and prolonging them never helps.”
The former Met chief superintendent Dal Babu also said the timescale seemed “excessive”. “You would expect them to move much more quickly. Given the outrage felt by the public, there does not seem to be any great transparency about why there are these delays,” he said.
Frustration over the prosecution’s timetable now risks being compounded by chronic problems in the court system, which Macdonald said were caused by austerity. This was also one of the causes of the Grenfell disaster, through cuts to central and local government building-control departments.
“The criminal justice system is still suffering terribly from austerity cuts, which did enormous damage,” Macdonald said. “The upshot is that it now takes years for cases to come to trial after charge. Criminal cases arising out of Grenfell are likely to be many and complex. The Crown Prosecution Service is speaking of charging decisions in 2026. This is probably optimistic. But even if it is right, on current trial schedules, it could be two or three years later before trials can be heard. Some are potentially talking about 2028, 2029.”
In the meantime, three of the largest companies involved have issued statements to the effect that they do not accept the findings of the inquiry, leading bereaved and survivors to call them “arrogant” and “charlatans”. The government and local council, by contrast, have apologised for decades of serious failings.
The public inquiry, led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, found that the companies that made the cladding and insulation products – Arconic, Celotex and Kingspan – behaved with “systematic dishonesty” and manipulated safety tests.
The US-based Arconic denied that it had concealed information from or misled any certification body, customer or the public. The Ireland-based Kingspan said the report showed that the type of insulation used was “immaterial” and some “deeply regrettable” behaviour in part of its business was historic and not a cause of the tragedy.
Celotex, now majority-owned by the French conglomerate Soprema, said the decisions to use its combustible product on the tower were made by construction industry professionals.
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Shah Aghlani, who lost his mother and aunt in the fire, said: “I am not surprised by the way these charlatans are behaving. That is why we need strong prosecution and penalties. They will continue to deny, deny and deny.
“The CPS must explain now what they are intending to do and what charges are going to be put on them. If the charges are weak and minor, then they must explain why.”
Ed Daffarn, who escaped from Grenfell Tower’s 13th floor, said of the responses: “I am angry, but I am not surprised. I don’t expect crooks and killers to admit to their crimes.”
Roncolato said that when he saw the statements, he “realised the arrogance of these people … The way that they think they are like God, they are untouchable”.
Kingspan referred back to its original statement, which it stressed welcomed the report’s publication, expressed regret at historical failings, and outlined extensive measures taken to address these failings. Celotex said it would not be appropriate to comment during the police investigation, but that it remained “committed to providing full cooperation to all official investigations into the Grenfell Tower fire”. Arconic was also contacted for comment.
The threat of a fresh delay to justice has prompted questions about the original decision by the police to wait until the end of the public inquiry before pursuing charges.
Michael Mansfield KC, who represented bereaved survivors and residents at the inquiry, said the police investigation should have come first. “You decide what’s the most important thing here. The most important thing, where there are obvious offences, is you investigate at the earliest chance. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Mansfield said that after the inquiry was announced, the government should have said prosecutions would take precedence, as the most important thing for the bereaved and survivors was accountability. While an inquiry was important, it could have been opened and continued work in the background in private while prosecutions were being pursued.
Max Hill KC, the chief prosecutor in England and Wales from 2018 to 2023, said that in this case, the general principle that proceedings that carry a risk to the liberty of a subject should take precedence over other proceedings had been trumped by a political decision by Theresa May to announce a public inquiry immediately.
But he said if Grenfell does result in criminal cases, “the judiciary and the court service will do everything they can to bring it forward for trial as soon as possible”.
Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions from 2013 to 2018, said 18 months was reasonable before the police passed files to the CPS, but expressed fears about a subsequent delay in getting cases to court because of the state of the criminal justice system.
