THE Grenfell disaster was “a crime caused by deregulation and institutional failings at the highest level,” the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said today. 

Responding to official acknowledgement that residents in the west London tower block were told to “stay put” for too long during the 2017 fire, FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: “It is right that stay put is reviewed for situations like Grenfell.

“But we must ask why flammable cladding is still wrapped around the homes of hundreds of thousands of people.

“The government has still not produced proper guidance on how to evacuate a high-rise tower in the middle of a fire, despite having had years to do so.”

He said the FBU had called for a review of “stay put” guidance long before the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people and is now the subject of a protracted public inquiry.

London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe told the inquiry last week that residents had been told to remain in their flats for too long after the fire took hold.

But Mr Wrack said: “The Grenfell Tower fire was a crime caused by deregulation and institutional failings at the highest level.

“By the time of the fire, the residents of the tower had warned on multiple occasions that their building was unsafe.

“There were various warnings over many years about the dangers of cladding fires, including from the Fire Brigades Union. 

“It is a national scandal that our warnings were ignored. 

“Firefighters at Grenfell were forced to work under impossible conditions, lacking appropriate preparation, planning and training.

“These high-level failings of policy continue to this day.”