Burnley Council has called on the government to implement all the recommendations of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster in which 72 people died.

At its full meeting on Wednesday, councillors voted unanimously in favour of a motion proposed by the authority's development boss Cllr Lubna Khan, amended by agreement by its Labour group.

It called for steps to toughen up building regulations to prevent a repeat of the fire caused by unsuitable cladding on the London tower block.

Cllr Khan said: "This is a humanitarian issue. It is something all the country is well aware of -the unbelievable tragedy that unfolded before our eyes.

"We recognise that successive governments failed to protect the most vulnerable in one of the wealthiest areas of the UK."

The motion says: "Burnley Council expresses deep sympathy and solidarity with the families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire, acknowledging the profound suffering and ongoing challenges they face.

"It recognises that successive governments failed to protect the most vulnerable in one of the wealthiest areas of the UK, as highlighted in the recent report on the Grenfell tragedy.

"It notes the report’s findings that expose significant failures in building safety and regulation, including the impact of profit-driven motives within the private sector that contributed to the disaster.

"It supports calls for immediate and comprehensive action to address building safety concerns."

These included:

  • enhanced regulation of building services within the private sector to ensure the highest standards of safety and accountability;
  • immediate support for individuals currently living in fear of unsafe buildings, including emergency inspections and necessary remediation work;
  • establishing an independent panel to consider whether it is in the public interest for building control functions to be performed by those who have a commercial interest in the process;
  • that the same panel consider whether all building control functions should be performed by a national authority.

It went on: "Burnley Council calls upon the UK Government to: implement robust regulatory reforms to ensure that all building control functions are managed by appropriate authorities, to ensure that all building control functions are enforced rigorously and provide adequate funding and resources to appropriate authorities to ensure they can effectively manage building control functions.

"It calls on the government to implement all 59 of the Grenfell report recommendations, ensuring that justice is served for the Grenfell families, and that lessons learned from this tragedy are applied to prevent similar occurrences in the future..

"It resolves that the leader of Burnley Council write to the Prime Minister and relevant government ministers to express the council’s support for these measures and to advocate for the necessary reforms."