18/06/2017 London News

and I'll be back with the late news at ten.

Now on BBC1, it's time for the news where you are.

Good evening, and welcome to BBC London News, I'm Sonja Jessup.

It's among the many questions being asked about the Grenfell fire

in North Kensington - could the Government have done more

to learn from lessons from previous blazes in tower blocks?

There's been criticism that warnings were ignored following the fatal

fire at Lakanal House seven years ago.

Today, former fire Minister Bob Neill insisted it was up to local

Here's our Political Editor Tim Donovan.

Inside, slow and painstaking recovery work continues, but many

questions about what might have prevented this fire are now focused

on what happened here at lack in all house in Southwark eight years ago.

-- Lakanal House. The fire minister at the time of the inquest was

challenged today on how the Government responded. The inquest

reported after I left Government, but I know that my successor wrote

to all social housing providers and local authorities, drawing attention

to the findings, and guidance was issued in 2014 on fighting fires in

high-rise buildings. Meanwhile, there have been calls from a Labour

MP who lost a friend in the fire for police to act urgently so that no

records can be destroyed. The police should be seizing computers,

documents and ensuring that both the criminal investigation and the

public enquiry can go forward with the right information. But questions

over safety have quickly become part of wider criticisms about money and

priorities. The council has nearly ?300 million in reserves. We have

austerity across the country and some in Kensington and Chelsea. The

council has been screwing money away rather than using it where it would

be best used. Ministers lined up to defend the council today. It is

unprecedented and harrowing. The Council did their best they could

with massive support from the community. The council's service to

its customers at the time of their greatest need is very much under

scrutiny. People need to know that the council officials have been

working around the clock since Wednesday. I am sure there are

challenges and we will look at all of that, but to say that the local

authority is not present and we are not working together with other

councils is inaccurate. That he and the council now find themselves

under immense pressure over both their actions before and after of

what happened at Grenfell Tower. As you say, the council is coming

for a lot of scrutiny and criticism. And ministers have gone out of their

way not to criticise directly, but we know what survivors and residents

are saying. Now this task force has been sent in by the Prime Minister,

and a Labour MP said to me, you can guarantee that if this was a Labour

authority, they would have called this a hit squad. My understanding

is that for a couple of days, the response is not being managed by the

chief executive of the council but others in London. There is this city

Corporation chief executive, and those from Hounslow and Southwark

helping, because this is now seen as a London- white issue, and make of

that what you will about the confidence in how Kensington

responded. In days and weeks, people may look at a sharing of services

that went on between Kensington, Hammersmith and Westminster. Did

that affect their front-line response? That is something for the

future. The Kensington leader has defended the authority, and the

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, says he has spoken to survivors and

residents and he knows who he believes.

at church services - and by members of the Muslim

community close to the site of Grenfell Tower.

The Dean of Kensington is among local faith leaders who've been

We spoke to him about how he's been supporting them -

On Wednesday, there was a state of shock and real anxiety for many

people trying to find loved ones, neighbours and friends. That has

changed over the days that followed into grief, real horrendous grief as

people have... As reality has dawned and people realise that loved ones

and friends are not coming. I have been with our family as they

discover their five-year-old wasn't being returned to them, and their

howls of anguish and pain will live with me for many years. It has been

the most emotionally... I can't begin to pretend anything I have

felt in the past week as compared with the stories I have listened to

our families and the grief, anguish and pain, but I think this week has

done some things for me - it has given me a real love for the people

of North Kensington, and I think it has also made me realise that not

only do we do that through prayer and through finance, but we do it

politically and speak up for people who feel they have no one to listen

for them -- to them. A warm and sultry night ahead. We

will start the temperatures like this. In the afternoon, London will

have had at least 30 Celsius perhaps 32. Very high UV levels, and he

continues through the week. We are back tonight at twenty past

ten here on BBC One. Good evening. Hot, dry and sunny for

most of us with the exception of the far north-west, where it is cloudy

and cool, 12 Celsius. Temperatures in the mid-20s. And, low 30s in the

south-east. If that is too hot and humid for many of you, the place to

be was close to the coast, where a refreshing sea breeze made it feel

better. It will be humid through the night. Uncomfortable for sleeping. A

weather front lingers in the far north-west, producing outbreaks of

rain and poor visibility on the coast. Here, that front will edge

south through the day. Elsewhere, sunshine remains, and temperatures

will rocket through the day. Mid-afternoon, 30-30 do Celsius

again. -- 30-32dC