>> The Prime Minister (Mrs Theresa May): With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a
statement on the disaster at Grenfell Tower.
I apologise to the Leader of the Opposition for the short notice he has had of this statement.
In the hour before making it, I received an important update, which I felt was essential
to bring to the attention of the House this morning.
What happened in the early hours of last Wednesday morning was one of the most unimaginable tragedies
that our country has seen in many years.
As of this morning, 79 people have been confirmed dead or listed as missing presumed dead, and
with work still ongoing to recover the bodies, sadly the death toll may rise further.
We already know that many children are among the dead and that in some cases whole families
perished.
Those who survived have lost loved ones, friends, neighbours and, in many cases, everything
they own.
It should never have happened.
In a few moments, I shall say how we will discover why it did, but, as I said yesterday,
that initial failure was then compounded by the fact that the support on the ground in
the initial hours was not good enough.
As Prime Minister, I have apologised for that second failure and taken responsibility for
doing what we can to put it right.
On my first visit to north Kensington, I met the emergency services.
These extraordinary men and women put their lives on the line in an effort to save others,
and my first responsibility was to check that they had all the resources they needed.
I then visited Chelsea and Westminster hospital, where I met some of the most seriously injured
survivors—it was from that experience that I decided to have an emergency fund.
I also met a group of residents in Kensington whom I then invited to Downing Street last
weekend.
I returned to Kensington again last night to hear directly from them about the progress
that we are making.
What became clear very quickly was that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea could
not cope, and it is right that the chief executive officer has now resigned.
It is also why I set up the Grenfell Tower recovery taskforce, which I have been chairing
personally.
This is about not just the steps that we take in the first few weeks, but a lasting commitment
that we make to supporting the affected families, long after the television cameras have gone.
Let me set out in detail the steps that we are taking to support the victims and to rehouse
those who have lost their homes.
On Friday morning, the Government established a central command centre under the leadership
of John Barradell, the chief executive of the City of London and former lead for London
local government on resilience, and Eleanor Kelly, chief executive of the London borough
of Southwark.
On behalf of the whole House I thank John and his team for all the work that they are
doing.
I also pay tribute to the London boroughs for their fantastic response, including a
number of chief executives who are currently working at the command centre, as well as
the Mayor of London and leading figures from a number of councils from outside London.
I thank the army of volunteers who stepped in to provide shelter, sustenance, comfort
and practical support.
I also thank the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and the Ministers for
Housing and Planning, for London and for Policing and the Fire Service for the work that they
have been doing.
Currently, there are around 600 people working on the site and in the immediate area to provide
support to the victims.
The Westway sports centre has been transformed into an emergency community hub, staffed by
40 officials from six Government Departments.
Those officials are making sure that people have essential documents such as driving licences
and passports, which are fundamental to them carrying on with their lives.
They have also been joined by experts from organisations such as Transport for London,
Citizens Advice and the Red Cross, NHS mental health staff, nurses, care managers, and a
GP.
Anyone affected by the blaze can walk in and access the support they need, and so far there
have been almost 700 visits to the centre.
The centre’s on-the-ground work is supplemented by the victim support unit, whose emergency
helpline provides a single point of contact for victims who need to deal with multiple
Government services in the wake of the disaster.
Each family whose home was destroyed is receiving a £5,000 down payment from the emergency
fund so they can buy food, clothes and other essentials, and outreach workers are seeking
to make sure everyone gets the money they are entitled to.
We are also paying all additional adults over 16 in these households £500 in cash.
Other cash payments are being paid out by the council on a discretionary basis, for
example to those whose home has been severely impacted but not permanently destroyed.
As of midday on Wednesday we had made payments of more than £700,000.
It is absolutely essential that people understand they can keep the money they receive; these
grants are not loans and they will not be expected to repay a single penny.
Neither are they waiving any legal rights as a result of accepting this financial help.
The payments will be disregarded for means-tested welfare payments, so no one in receipt of
benefits will see their benefits cut if they accept emergency support.
I would like to reassure people that we will not use this tragic incident as a reason to
carry out immigration checks on those involved or on those providing vital information to
identify victims or those assisting with the criminal investigation.
We will make sure that all victims, irrespective of their immigration status, can access the
services they need, including healthcare and accommodation.
In terms of local schools, Kensington Aldridge Academy, the school right next door to the
tower, remains closed.
However, all its pupils have already been accommodated at other schools in the area.
The Department for Education is working with Ofqual to ensure that children who are sitting
their GCSEs receive an appropriate exam dispensation and specialist counselling has been offered
to local schoolchildren and also to teachers affected by the fire.
Turning to re-housing, 151 homes were destroyed in the fire, most in the tower itself but
also several in the immediate vicinity.
All those who have lost their homes have been offered emergency hotel accommodation, and
all will be offered rehousing within three weeks.
Already, 164 suitable properties have been identified and they are being checked and
made ready for people to move into.
In the longer term, everyone whose home was destroyed will be guaranteed a new home on
the same terms as the one they lost.
Sixty-eight of those will be in a brand-new low-rise block that has just been built by
Berkeley Homes.
The developer has generously offered to turn over the entire block at cost price.
Contractors are on site now, working 24/7 to speed up fit-out so that the first families
can move in this summer.
Within the wider cordon area, many more homes were damaged by smoke or water or have lost
gas, heating and hot water.
Emergency hotel accommodation is available for anyone who does not want to remain in
a damaged property and more than 100 hotel rooms have already been provided.
We are also putting in place practical support to help accelerate necessary repairs and yesterday
drew on expertise from the Army to assist with this.
Some survivors have said that they want to leave the local area, and we will of course
support that and help them find a home elsewhere.
But I want to be absolutely clear: nobody is being forced to move somewhere they do
not want to go, and if any hon.
Member thinks they know of anyone being treated in this way they should contact my office
in Downing Street with the details.
As the scale of the tragedy became clear we quickly decided there had to be an independent
public inquiry.
As I said to the House yesterday, it will be chaired by a judge to get to the truth
about what happened and who was responsible, and to provide justice for the victims and
their families who suffered so terribly.
All those with an interest—including survivors and victims’ families—will be consulted
about the terms of reference, and we will pay for legal representation for those affected.
Listening to survivors last night, it also became clear that they want support to come
together as a group to have their voices heard, and the Government will play our part in helping
them to do so.
For too long residents have been overlooked and ignored.
We will ensure that they are involved in every step of this process.
No stone will be left unturned in this inquiry, and there will be nowhere for any guilty parties
to hide.
I am clear that we cannot wait for ages to learn the immediate lessons, so I expect that
the chair of the inquiry will want to produce an interim report as early as possible.
I know that many others living in tall residential buildings will have concerns about their safety
after what happened at Grenfell.
All social landlords have been instructed to carry out additional fire safety checks
on tower blocks, and to ensure that the appropriate safety and response measures are in place.
This is being done in co-operation with local fire and rescue services.
We have also taken steps to make private landlords aware and have made our checking facilities
available to them for free.
The House should of course be careful when it comes to speculating about what caused
the fire, but the Government have arranged to test cladding in all relevant tower blocks
as a precaution.
Shortly before I came to the Chamber, I was informed that a number of these tests have
come back as combustible.
The relevant local authorities and local fire services have been informed.
As I speak, they are taking all possible steps to ensure that buildings are safe and to inform
affected residents.
Immediately after this statement, the Department for Communities and Local Government will
contact any MPs whose constituents are affected, and the Communities Secretary will provide
a further update later today.
We can test more than 100 buildings a day, and the results come within hours.
I urge any landlord who owns a building of this kind to send samples for testing as soon
as possible.
Any results will be communicated immediately to local authorities and local fire services.
Landlords have a legal obligation to provide safe buildings.
Where they cannot do that, we expect alternative accommodation to be provided.
We cannot and will not ask people to live in unsafe homes.
It is clear that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was not able to cope with the
scale of the tragedy, so we will develop a new strategy for resilience in major disasters,
which could include a new civil disaster response taskforce that can help at times of emergency.
Finally, we must learn some of the lessons of this and previous disasters where bereaved
families have not had the support they need, so we will introduce an independent public
advocate for public disasters—a strong independent voice for victims, acting on behalf of bereaved
families and supporting them at public inquests and inquiries.
In the past week, a lot of remarkable people have gone above and beyond to help deal with
the fire and its aftermath.
First and foremost, of course, are the incredible men and women of the emergency services who
did so much to save so many lives.
I cannot imagine the kind of bravery it takes to run into a burning building and head upstairs
when any normal person would be heading for the exits.
We have also seen sterling work from people across the public sector including teachers,
nurses, staff from various local authorities and civil servants, who are doing all they
can to help.
We have seen incredible acts of generosity from private businesses, and we have seen
the people of this great city and this great country stepping up to help in any way they
can: donating money, clothes, toys and food, volunteering their time and so much more.
Above all, I pay tribute to the people of Kensington.
They have opened their hearts and homes to people affected by the fire, coming together
and showing what a real community looks like.
The selfless actions of local people and the courage and resilience of the survivors should
give us all pause for thought.
Right now, our focus is on supporting the victims, finding homes for those made homeless
and making sure that the country’s housing stock is as safe as possible.
But as we move forwards, we must also recognise that for too long in our country, under Governments
of both colours, we simply have not given enough attention to social housing, and that
this is actually a symptom of an even more fundamental issue.
It should not take a disaster of this kind for us to remember that there are people in
Britain today living lives that are so far removed from those that many here in Westminster
enjoy.
In this tower—just a few miles from the Houses of Parliament and in the heart of our
great city—people live a fundamentally different life, do not feel the state works for them
and are therefore mistrustful of it.
So, long after the TV cameras have gone and the world has moved on, let the legacy of
this awful tragedy be that we resolve never to forget these people and instead to gear
our policies and our thinking towards making their lives better and bringing them into
the political process.
It is our job as a Government and as a Parliament to show that we are listening and that we
will stand up for them.
That is what I am determined we should do.
I commend this statement to the House.