Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill

Lord Sharma Excerpts

2nd reading & Report stage & 3rd reading & Committee negatived
Tuesday 14th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharma (Con)]

My Lords, following the 2017 general election, I was appointed Housing and Planning Minister on 13 June by the then Prime Minister, now the noble Baroness, Lady May. That, of course, was the day before the terrible tragedy at Grenfell Tower where 72 people lost their lives—54 adults and 18 children.

As many of your Lordships have noted, this was a tragedy that should never have happened. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has been very clear that those 72 deaths were “entirely avoidable”, and we have to acknowledge that ultimately this was the result of decades of failure by successive Governments, by myriad institutions and of course by the construction industry. A number of noble Lords, including the noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Sanderson and Lady Hazarika, pointed out that so far no one has been prosecuted for this disaster. We know that the criminal investigation remains ongoing, but when charges are brought, and I sincerely hope they are, the full force of the law should be thrown at those found to be culpable.

The immediate initial response to the fire was also simply not good enough. As Ministers, we acknowledged that at the time. I did so in the media and in Parliament. We should have moved much more quickly to put our arms around the grieving and shell-shocked families and communities to offer support and reassurance. The Government did pick up the pace, and in the days and weeks following the tragedy, I and other Ministers spent a significant amount of time listening to and engaging with survivors and the wider Grenfell community to offer immediate support but also to discuss what longer-term support might be required. The noble Baroness, Lady Sanderson, set out very eloquently that a lot of what was started then continues today.

I also noted in a parliamentary debate in the other place that hearing the harrowing accounts of the survivors was

“the most humbling and moving experience of my life”.—[Official Report, Commons, 5/7/17; col. 1191.]

That remains the case. If anything, the passage of time has only reinforced to me the real dignity that was maintained by the survivors in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, despite the unimaginable pain and grief that they faced.

I particularly recall speaking to one survivor when I was meeting families individually at the Westway emergency relief centre to talk about their housing needs. One gentleman had waited patiently for hours to speak to me, and in our conversation I learned that at the time, some members of his family were still unaccounted for, but he wanted nothing for himself. All he asked was that I—we—do everything to prioritise and help find accommodation for survivor families with young children. His was a display of the best of humanity at a very dark and testing time for our nation.

I very much welcome this Grenfell Tower memorial Bill, which will allow for the construction of a permanent and fitting memorial. We all owe enormous gratitude to the community-led Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission, which has worked so diligently over the past years to recommend how the victims of the fire should be remembered. I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Roe, for the work that he did that night and subsequently. I totally agree with him that, of course, it is up to the community to decide what this memorial should be like, but I do think that the commission’s recommendations show great sensitivity and awareness about the type of memorial that should be constructed. I particularly welcome the recommendation that the memorial should be a “sacred place”, designed and built to last, for remembering and reflecting, both individually and communally, on who and what we have lost.

It is also vital, as the commission recommends, that there is a long-term public exhibition, which, together with digital archives, will help ensure that current and future generations can learn about and remember the tragedy, the factors that contributed to it and how the Grenfell community responded to it. We must never forget what happened—and what, through years of inaction, and worse, was in effect allowed to happen—on that fateful day. The noble Baronesses, Lady Chakrabarti and Lady Nargund, have noted that this tragedy happened in the middle of one of the most prosperous and advanced cities in the world.

As I understand it, the commission has committed to beginning the memorial’s construction in mid-2027, and the passage of the Bill will help ensure that public money is made available. A permanent Grenfell memorial is vital, but there are other ways in which we can honour the memories of those who lost their lives. First—the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, raised this issue, and I would be interested to hear from the Minister on this—I would like to see the Government deliver on their commitments to help fund the refurbishment of the Lancaster West Estate. I know that the Government are having a constructive dialogue with the local council, but, for the sake of local residents, funding decisions need to be concluded now. Secondly, as many of your Lordships have noted, we need to ensure that the recommendations of the Grenfell inquiry are implemented in a timely manner, so that a tragedy like Grenfell can never be allowed to happen again. I commend the Bill to the House.