THE next Grenfell could be “in the post tomorrow” as politicians fail to deliver the far-reaching changes needed to prevent another disaster, a key justice campaigner has warned. 

In an interview with the Morning Star to mark the anniversary of the Grenfell fire, Yvette Williams, a co-founder of the Justice4Grenfell campaign, hit out at the lack of “significant changes” in the half a decade since the devastating blaze that killed 72 people. 

“No-one has been arrested, people are still living in dangerous, unsafe buildings so the next Grenfell could be in the post tomorrow and communities like ours … well, our conditions have got worse,” she said. 

There is no political will to force change, Ms Williams said, pointing to the Tory MPs who voted against the Fire Safety Bill — including Kensington MP Felicity Buchan — containing recommendations from phase one of the Grenfell Tower inquiry.

She also highlighted that the government had recently rejected plans to make it a legal requirement for landlords to prepare personal evacuation plans for disabled residents, despite the fact 41 per cent of Grenfell’s disabled residents died in the blaze. 

Read more of the Star's coverage of the Grenfell Tower over the years here: mstar.link/Grenfell

Ministers have finally banned the type of cladding used on Grenfell Tower, but Ms Williams argues that the ban does not go far enough as it does not cover blocks already fitted with the dangerous materials, only new projects. 

As of May 2022, there are still 58 buildings over 18 metres tall that have cladding similar to that on Grenfell Tower, which has been found during the public inquiry to have accelerated the spread of the flames. 

Ms Williams, who has lived in North Kensington for over 30 years and witnessed the fire, said the lack of justice in the years since has compounded the suffering of the community. 

“People go through phases,” she explained. “People are angry, some people just opt out. I mean we’ve had suicides since Grenfell here.

“We are a resilient community but especially in the lead-up to the five-year anniversary, there is a real heaviness here.”

Her family has also been scarred. “My daughter was 10 at the time she witnessed the fire. It still stays with her. We can’t even light a candle — she doesn’t want to be near fire at all.”

Recalling the horrific night of June 14 2017, Ms Williams said she rushed to the tower with her daughter after being alerted to the blaze by a friend who had been evacuated from a neighbouring block.

“All of a sudden the fire went out of control,” she recalls. “At some point you kind of remember deathly silence and then complete mayhem, people screaming, you can see people from the windows, more and more emergency service sirens coming into the area.

“There was a point where I thought, people are not going to get out of there. And nobody turned up to help either.”

Anger at the absence of the authorities in the aftermath of the blaze, leaving it up to the community to fill the void in support, and fears that the response would be a whitewash pushed Ms Williams and other community members to start up the Justice4Grenfell group. 

Since then the organisation has launched a series of high-profile campaigns to keep Grenfell in the public eye, most recently setting up an empty table at the foot of the tower with 72 seats, for each person who died in the fire, for the jubilee. 

Justice4Grenfell has also sought to call out the wider factors Ms Williams says contributed to the blaze, from austerity and privatisation to racism and social cleansing of council estates. 

“When I stood at the base of the tower that night, it told me everything that was wrong with the society we live in,” Ms Williams said.  

“The [Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea] had used austerity as an excuse of why they had to cut costs on the tower — yet the borough was sitting down on £274m in its reserves as Grenfell burned.” 

She added: “Grenfell doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Everything that is awful that is happening in our society that adversely affects black and working-class communities manifests itself in Grenfell.”

But keeping up the campaign over the past five years has not been easy, Ms Williams notes, saying there have been several times when they’ve been close to “breaking down.” 

The community has seen three housing secretaries come and go, while the firms and authorities involved in the regeneration of the Grenfell Tower have shirked responsibility, she says. 

“Why is no-one listening, why is this so hard, why can’t they give the smallest little bit of compassion?” Ms Williams asked. 

The public inquiry, chaired by Judge Martin Moore-Bick, has also made “little progress,” she says, despite costing the taxpayer a whopping £149m so far, with more than £60m going on lawyers fees, according to a recent Guardian report.

“I think it’s eroded most trust and confidence that it will achieve anything,” she added. 

“It’s just a smokescreen for us. The same way the tower is covered in white tarpaulin, the same way the government is covering up everything they’re doing.”

But what happened at Grenfell has also brought communities together, she added, highlighting the support from the Hillsborough families, who hold their own vigil in Liverpool for those who perished in the fire on every 14th of the month.

On the fifth anniversary of the blaze, survivors and bereaved families, represented by the Grenfell United group, have again called for charges to be brought against those responsible for the fire. 

Ms Williams said: “They cannot bring their loved ones back, they cannot get their homes back, they’ve lost their people so prosecutions to them is what justice is.”