CULPRITS behind the Grenfell fire should face justice with no corporate or state veil to hide behind, campaigners demanded today. 

It came as the final report of the inquiry into the tragedy found that incompetence, dishonesty and greed led to 72 “avoidable” deaths in the fire seven years ago.

The inquiry found that the fire was the result of “decades of failure” by the government and the construction industry to address the risks of combustible materials in high-rise buildings. 

It accused cladding and insulation firms of “systematic dishonesty” and employing “deliberate and sustained” strategies to manipulate fire-safety testing, misrepresent test data and mislead the market.

Multibillion-pound firm Arconic supplied combustible cladding for the tower’s refurbishment in 2015.

The report found the firm “deliberately concealed” the dangers of the panels, despite possessing data as early as 2005 indicating its risks. 

Kingspan, which made a small amount of the insulation, “knowingly created a false market,” falsely claiming it passed tests to allow it to be used on buildings over 18 meters.

Rival Celotex, which supplied most of the insulation, similarly manipulated tests and “embarked on a dishonest scheme to mislead its customers and the wider market.”

Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said that Grenfell residents had been failed “in most cases through incompetence but in some cases through dishonesty and greed.”

Grenfell United, which represents some of the survivors and the bereaved, said the report “reveals that whenever there’s a clash between corporate interest and public safety, governments have done everything they can to avoid their responsibilities to keep people safe.” 

It said the report’s rcommendations were “basic safety principles that should already exist,” which highlights how the government’s roles and duties “have been hollowed out by privatisation.” 

“To prevent a future Grenfell, the government needs to create something that doesn’t exist: a government with the power and ability to separate itself from the construction industry and corporate lobbying, putting people before profit.”

At a briefing by members of a support group for the next of kin, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members, said the inquiry “delayed the justice my family deserves.”

The Met Police said it cannot use the report’s findings as evidence to bring charges — but that it will examine it alongside evidence from the criminal investigation.

The force said charges are not expected to be brought for at least another 12 months.

The report said that the government’s drive for deregulation meant safety concerns were “ignored, delayed or disregarded” despite an inquest in 2009 into six deaths in a fire in Camberwell that had spread through cladding. 

It said that by 2016, the government were aware of the risks of combustible cladding but “failed to act on what it knew.”

The report outlined failures in the London Fire Brigade that impacted the response to the fire, which it put down to a “chronic lack of effective leadership” and “an attitude of complacency.” 

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said that fire service staff were “put in an impossible position, forced to respond to a fire in a high-rise building effectively wrapped in petrol.”  

He said: “Construction companies gamed the system to maximise their profits. 

“A system of semi-privatised building control put commercial interests ahead of regulatory duties.

“The deregulation of recent decades must be comprehensively reversed. 

“The systems for delivering building safety must be brought under public ownership and must be given the resources they need.”

Among his recommendations, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick suggested a single regulator be appointed to oversee all aspects of the construction industry, and for all aspects of fire safety to be brought under one government department. 

In a statement, Justice4Grenfell said: “It seems hypocritical, and even futile, to now expect these same organisations to oversee and rectify the ‘chain of failures’ that led to the disaster.

It said the recommendations “do little to empower or give agency to the community, instead framing the fire as an outcome of administrative failings.”

The group said the inquiry should have “always been about the people,” adding that it was people who made decisions about the refurbishment, sold their dangerous products, and prioritised money over lives.

It added: “It is these people who should face justice — there should be no corporate or state veil to hide behind.”