By Ben Kerrigan And Emily Caulkett-
Some of those to expect a share of £150m have said they still want to see accountability go beyond the compensatory pay out.
It follows the hearing in the High Court, in which details emerged of the £150m compensation to be paid to families of the victims of the tragedy.
Barrister Richard Hermer KC confirmed tht a compensation sum of about £150m had been awarded across 900 cases. The devastating fire at the west London building killed 72 people in June 2017.
Court listings indicated the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was one of a number of defendants.
Cladding giant Arconic another defendant in the case, a agreed to contribute to a restorative justice project to benefit the community affected by the fire”.
The settlement does not include all victims of the fire and is separate from the long-running inquiry, chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, which is examining the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the blaze.
That long awaited report is due to be published later this year.
Those who took part in the claim were represented by 14 legal firms who have stressed the agreement does not impact the potential for any criminal charges
In a statement released last month, the firms said on behalf of its client : “The settlement is completely independent of, and has no impact upon, the ongoing Public Inquiry into the Grenfell Tower Fire which is due to publish its report in 2023, or the ongoing criminal investigation where it is anticipated that the Crown Prosecution Service will make a decision on whether to pursue criminal charges against those responsible for the fire after publication of the final Grenfell Tower Inquiry report.”
“In those respects, the BSRs’ (bereaved family members, survivors and local residents) fight for justice continues.
“Finally, it should be recognised that no amount of damages could ever be sufficient to properly compensate those affected by the fire.”
The amount of compensation the 900 claimants are to received is to be shared out “according to their own specific circumstances”, the lawyers said.
A number of potential recipients to the massive compensation initially claimed they felt pressured into signing the deal and are upset with the terms.
However, some affected parties have told this publication that the sum seeks to exclude full responsibility and accountability.
One source anonymously told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”it sometimes feels like a bit of blood money to shut us up, but no price can be put on a life really, and what we really want is full accountability across the board. Ofcourse compensation is necessary, but not at the expense of accountability.
”When you are grieving and at the same time facing pressures from higher cost of living due to rising energy and food prices, you can’t really say no to money. You really have no choice but to accept whatever is available to help victims endure an agonising time of their life. But we still want accountability.
Another told this publication: ” they at least did acknowledge the need to issue out payments of compensation,, but we still want those who breached their duty of care held responsible. Let the court’s examine the whole case and provide a verdit.
Over 900 of those affected by the blaze that wreaked harvoc through Grenfell in June 2017 will share the money after their lawyers reached an agreement with those involved in the disastrous refurbishment of the tower.
“It [has] made me feel that the families that were lost are worth nothing. We’ve been let down by the solicitors that we gave consent to negotiate for us.
“[I’m] very upset, like everybody else. This is not justice, this is just them [the defendants] trying to close their case, to close the matter.”
The £150 million figure which include damages for the pain and suffering of the victims and financial losses including future earnings.
The figure will be paid by a group of more than 20 companies and authorities which includes Kingspan insulation, (worth £8.6 billion) and Arconic, the firm that made the cladding and has a market value of £2 billion.
The defendants in the case also include the Home Office, the Department for Housing and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the UK’s wealthiest council.
Moroccan national Karim Khalloufi, whose sister Khadija died in June’s tragedy, said his mother and other sister have been waiting for months waiting to hear back from the Home Office after applying for visitor visas.
He claims both were required to relinquish their passports and pay more than £400 in total to have their applications processed at the British visa centre in Rabat. But the family say they have had no communication from the department – and their passports have not been returned – since their appointment over eight weeks ago.
Inquiry
An inquiry let by lawmaker Sir Martin Moore-Bick concluded that the decision to evacuate the tower block should have been made earlier, but that the firefighters who attended the scene “deserve the gratitude of the local community and London as a whole.”
He added: “The bravery and commitment to duty shown by individual firefighters cannot mask or excuse the deficiencies in the command and conduct of operations,” the report said. “Once it was clear that the fire had spread out of control, that compartmentation had extensively failed, but that evacuation remained possible, a decision should have been made to evacuate the tower.”
The report also criticized the London Fire Brigade for sending “relatively junior rank” commanders to the scene, and for “uncertain” communication between the control room and the responders at the scene. Other key aspects of the report included the observations that the resident of the apartment where the blaze began was not at fault, and that the structural use of cladding caused the fire’s spread.
The full inquiry report is expected to run to thousands of pages and is expected to be published sometime this year.
A public inquiry which originally heard the organisations accused of a “merry-go-round of buck passing” – was told in November that every one of the 72 deaths was avoidable. The deal does not affect the public inquiry or the active police investigation into the fire.
A Grenfell Tower Inquiry panel in October 2022 said was: “able to conclude with confidence” that “each and every one” of the deaths in the fire was “avoidable”, its counsel has said in closing remarks
The Grenfell compensation case took the alternative dispute resolution, or ADR, route almost two years ago to speed up the process, particularly in complex cases with hundreds of people and multiple organisations involved.
Claimants were first given a document detailing the terms of the compensation deal in November 2022.
No Admission Of Liability
The terms of the settlement includes the acknowledgement that the compensation is no admission of liability by the defendants and a ban on claimants from making any further claims in the UK or abroad.
However, lawyers for the victim families have made clear that the pay out imposes no bar on any future potential criminal charges . Families of the victims want to see criminal charges against all parties whose negligence led to the multiple deaths that fateful night.
Many have expressed scepticism that those who are found to be responsible will face charges, though it is too early to pre-empt an investigation.
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