Culpable

'If anyone still doubts that 72 people lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire because successive governments took away safety measures in the name of profit, this lucid, luminously written book will put them straight' - Francis Beckett
In June 2017, a fire broke out in the 25-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in West London. 72 people died in what was the worst residential fire in Britain since World War II.
Culpable is a searing indictment of the government's role in this tragedy. For nearly four decades, the ministers responsible for public safety systematically dismantled regulations through privatisation and deregulation, enabling the contractors who made Grenfell Tower a ticking time bomb.
Despite warnings from professionals (including the FBU), politicians from successive governments imposed deregulation in the name of the market and in favour of private profiteers. Meticulously researched, and drawing on the extensive findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Culpable sets the record straight and challenges readers to consider the fundamental issues of power and violence that remain unresolved in the aftermath of Grenfell.

Paul Hampton is Head of Research and Policy at the Fire Brigades Union. He is the author of numerous FBU and other labour movement publications, and has been a trade unionist for over 40 years.