Grenfell inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick today started two days of hearings, amid calls for those responsible for the fire to be held to account without “fear or favour”.
The hearings today and tomorrow will examine issues such as witness statements, timetables and disclosure of evidence to core participants.
Evidence will only start to be heard next year. However, the inquiry faces a challenge to build trust with survivors and families of the 71 victims of the disaster on June 14.
All families and survivors have been granted core participant status, though there have been calls for more community representatives to also have it.
Nearly 16,000 have signed a petition calling for additional panel members to be appointed to join the judge and three expert assessors.
Tottenham MP David Lammy, who lost his friend Khadija Saye in the fire, said: “Let us remember that it is the inquiry’s job to hold those in power to account on behalf of those who lost their lives, their families and the survivors, with fierce impartiality and without fear or favour.”
As the hearings opened in Holborn Bars in central London, Kensington and Chelsea council faced renewed pressure to speed up the rehousing of Grenfell Tower survivors.
Only 42 families from the 24-storey block have moved into permanent new homes since the fire.
Elizabeth Campbell, the leader of Kensington council, said 300 homes will have been bought by Christmas to be ready for the families.
A memorial service will be held at St Paul’s cathedral on Thursday, attended by the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
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