Grenfell fire families 'feel sick' as millionaire fat cats enjoy luxury lives (original) (raw)
Families of the Grenfell Tower fire said it makes them 'feel sick' to see millionaire fat cats blamed for the disaster enjoying lives of luxury with yachts and mansions
Super-rich bosses profited from selling dangerous building materials
Campaigners say it makes them feel sick to see company fatcats blamed for the Grenfell fire enjoying lives of luxury.
The public inquiry concluded firms sold building materials they knew to be dangerous, yet many bosses have raked in millions of pounds since the disaster.
Yvette Williams, a leading campaigner at Justice4Grenfell, said: “It makes me feel sick. For the last seven years they’ve been sailing around in their yachts, putting up their feet in their villas."
Ms Williams criticised that race, class and social housing were not looked at in the remit of the inquiry. Of the residents who died in the fire, 85% were ethnic minorities. “Many of the decisions they made were because they knew that the dirty products were going on a council block in London where mainly Black and brown people live so they didn’t care,” she said. “Our lives are cheap so it was just a matter of making a quick buck.”
Yvette Williams criticised that race and class were left out of the report (
Image:
MDM)
Emma O’Connor, who escaped the fire, said the firms’ money “should have been frozen from the start”. Claude Wherle, ex-boss at cladding firm Arconic, had told colleagues in an email that poor fire test results must stay “confidential”. Insulation firm Celotex’s parent company Saint-Gobain has reportedly paid boss Pierre-André de Chalendar £11.7million since the fire. Fellow insulation company Kingspan’s billionaire founder Eugene Murtagh has trousered £149.3million.
Building contractor Rydon boss Robert Bond, who sold his £2million mansion in 2020, reportedly saw his salary rise to more than £470,000 in the years after the fire. Family photos on social media appear to show them on a yacht, while an Aston Martin and Porsche have been seen on his drive.
Subcontractor Harley Facades’ boss Ray Bailey lives in a £1.5million mansion.
The public inquiry’s final report this week laid bare the greed and dishonesty of companies (
Image:
Getty Images)
Cladding firms were found to have deliberately concealed the dangers of their products (
Image:
Getty Images)
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A total of 58 individuals and 19 companies and organisations are under investigation for potential criminal offences, and more than 300 hours of interviews have taken place. Potential offences under consideration include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, perverting the course of justice, misconduct in public office, health and safety offences, fraud, and offences under the fire safety and building regulations.
The Metropolitan Police’s criminal investigation into the tragedy is not due to end until the end of 2025 and those found of wrongdoing may not face any prosecutions until as late as 2027.