I Survived The Grenfell Fire. Boris Johnson Still Hasn't Delivered On His Promises
A year ago, Sir Martin Moore-Bick published his first round of recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
The prime minister promised us the government would implement the recommendations in full. “That commitment is absolute,” Boris Johnson said, “because if any good is to come of this senseless tragedy – a tragedy that should never have happened – and it is to become a catalyst for change.”
A year on and that “absolute commitment” isn’t so absolute after all.
In the fire we lost our homes, 72 of our loved ones died and our community will never be the same. We’ve looked to the Hillsborough families for inspiration – their determination and fight for justice over decades. But we’ve always hoped that justice would come sooner for us.
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That one of the legacies of Hillsborough would be our families wouldn’t have to wait so long or fight so hard – that our children wouldn’t grow into adults still waiting for resolution for the trauma they experienced that awful night.
But with each passing year it becomes clearer that the system is stacked against us and promises so easily made by politicians are rarely kept.
There has been progress – we’ve fought for it. Dangerous cladding has been banned, new legislation going through parliament sets out to overhaul the nation’s unfit construction industry and the London Fire Brigade is planning new training for managing major incidents and handling emergency calls.
But, across the board, most of the recommendations have not yet been implemented, and there are signs the government is back tracking on key changes.
The London Fire Brigade still has many recommendations to implement, the...
