Grenfell Tower to be dismantled as families react with anger

A government decision to dismantle Grenfell Tower has been met with anger by some bereaved relatives and survivors.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told a meeting on Wednesday that the west London tower block, where a fire killed 72 people in 2017, would be dismantled to ground level.

But a spokesperson for Grenfell United, which represents some of the bereaved families and survivors, said no-one at the meeting supported it and people “had been ignored”.

There has been several years of debate over the future of the 24-storey tower, with some hoping it would remain in place as a lasting reminder of the tragedy and others wanting it replaced with a new memorial.

A formal announcement by the government is expected to be made on Friday.

The spokesperson for Grenfell United said Rayner had refused to confirm how many bereaved people and survivors had been spoken to in the “recent, short four week consultation”.

“Today’s meeting showed just how upset bereaved and survivors are about not having their views heard or considered in this decision,” they said in a statement.

“Ignoring the voices of bereaved on the future of our loved ones’ gravesite is disgraceful and unforgivable.”

Kimia Zabihyan, from Grenfell Next of Kin, which also acts for some of the bereaved families, told the BBC she had attended the meeting with Rayner.

She described the meeting as “charged”, but said Rayner appeared to have come along with the “best of intentions”.

“The deputy prime minister was very clear that she has taken this decision very seriously, that it is a serious responsibility and that it is a very sensitive decision to make, but it is one that she felt she had to make,” said Ms Zabihyan, adding that Rayner said she had made the decision based on what engineers had recommended.

The government has previously been warned the structure may be unsafe due to the extent of the fire damage.

In 2020, a report recommended the tower be propped up in various places because the concrete that reinforces it had been damaged by the weather, and also the heating and drying of summers and winters creates some instability.

The engineers recommended that the tower was brought down – and in 2019 the government was told the tower should be taken down above the 10th floor.

Ms Zabihyan said she understood the government’s rationale for the decision, but said many people were very unhappy.

She said that at the meeting one person had told Rayner: “No-one cares about this more than me, because I had just bits of bone to bury of my mother so that building means a lot to me. That is where her soul is, where her ashes are. It’s in that building.”

Following the meeting, a government spokesperson said: “The priority for the deputy prime minister is to meet with and write to the bereaved, survivors and the immediate community to let them know her decision on the future of the Grenfell Tower.

“This is a deeply personal matter for all those affected, and the deputy prime minister is committed to keeping their voice at the heart of this.”

But the head of a local residents’ association told Radio 4’s The World Tonight he and “the overwhelming majority” of local residents supported the decision to take down the tower.

Mushtaq Lasharie, a local resident and chairman of Lancaster West Estate Residents Association, told Radio 4: “We were waiting over seven-and-a-half years for a closure and I hope this decision will bring a closure.

“When we surveyed a few years back the overwhelming majority wanted to take it out and the reason is, number one, it is dangerous, number two, it reminds us every day.”

Emma O’Connor, who lived on 20th floor of tower and escaped the fire that night, told Radio 4’s Today programme she thought the tower should be “taken down from the top to the 10th floor which they say is the most unstable so it then can be erected into a standing memorial”.

“We understand it’s unsafe but if it’s out of sight, it will be definitely be out of mind for those responsible for the tragic deaths,” she said.

Ms O’Connor was at the meeting with Rayner and said survivors and relatives were told ‘I’ve made this decision, I’ll take questions now’, but said officials “didn’t answer how they came to the decision” to dismantle the tower.

Emma Dent Coad, who was Labour MP for Kensington at the time of the Grenfell fire and is now an independent councillor on Kensington and Chelsea Council, said a lot of the bereaved and families were “absolutely distraught”.

She said: “We’ve been told the work will start after the 8th anniversary which is this coming June and will be gone by the 10th so that may take two years to deconstruct as they’re calling it.”

She said while there were concerns from the local community about public health issues, some of the bereaved wanted the tower to stay – “a lot of people regarded it as a sacred site”.

There is a range of views about what to do with the tower.

Kate Lamble, a journalist, producer and presenter of The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast and Grenfell: Building a Disaster, told Radio 4’s Today programme that some people still believe the tower is the resting place of their loved ones and should remain.

There are others, she said, “who see it while they’re taking their kids to school or going to work see it as this reminder of a very traumatic event and welcome the idea of it being take down.”

The fire on 14 June 2017 was originally caused by a faulty fridge in a fourth-floor flat and quickly spread around the block because it was covered in highly flammable cladding.

A public inquiry concluded in September that the disaster had been the result of numerous government failures, and failure of the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.

The west London tower block was covered in combustible cladding because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms who made and sold it, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said.

Many bereaved families have called for criminal action to be brought against some of those implicated in the inquiry but police and prosecutors have said that no decision will be made on potential charges until the end of 2026.

In a 2023 report, the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission set out a series of recommendations for a “sacred space”, designed to be a “peaceful place for remembering and reflecting”.

It said the space should include a garden, monument and dedicated space for the private expression of grief and mourning for the families who lost loved ones.

A shortlist of five potential design teams was announced last month, and a winning design team is set to be selected this summer.