Grenfell Tower Fire: Background

On 14 June 2017 a fire broke out at Grenfell Tower, a 24 storey residential housing block in North Kensington, London. 72 people died as a result of the fire.

The tower, which provided social housing, contained 129 flats. The block was owned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea but management of the block was the responsibility of the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation.

The fire appeared to spread rapidly up the building; the current Public Inquiry has considered and reported on the causes of the fire.

This briefing sets out the Government response to the fire, including details of the building safety programme, the ongoing public inquiry and recovery taskforce. It includes relevant press articles from immediately after the fire and from recent months but does not aim to provide comprehensive coverage since 2017. Parliamentary statements and debates on the issue are also included.

Government information on the fire is available online.

A number of Library briefings provide further information:

• Building Regulations and Safety: Review and Reforms, last updated May 2019 but contains a summary of recent developments to October 2019
• Leasehold high-rise flats: who pays for fire safety work?, October 2019
• Fire Safety of Construction Products, POSTnote, May 2018