18/06/2017 London News

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 Kensington, could the Government have done

more to learn lessons from previous tower block blazes?

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 Lakanal House in Southwark

And recommendations on safety measures like cladding and

sprinklers. The fire minister at the time

of the inquest was challenged today 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 also guidance was issued

in 2014 on fighting fires Meanwhile, there have been calls

from one Labour MP who lost a friend in the fire for police to act

urgently so that no The police should be seizing

computers, documents and ensuring that both the criminal investigation

and the public enquiry can go But questions over safety

have quickly become part of wider criticisms

about money and priorities. The council here has nearly

?300 million in reserves. We have austerity across the country

and some in Kensington and Chelsea. The council has been keeping money

rather than using it Ministers lined up to

defend the council today. It is unprecedented

and absolutely harrowing. The Council did the best

they could with massive The council's service

to its customers at the time of their greatest need is very

much under scrutiny. People need to know that council

officials have been working around I've come on air to support the work

they are doing. 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. But he and the council now find

themselves under immense pressure over both their actions before

and after what happened As you say, the council

is coming in for a lot Ministers are going out of their way

not to criticise the council but a desperate come clear that it was

overwhelmed by the scale of what it had to do in the first hours, 24-36

hours. The government sending the task force of civil servants and one

Labour Empey said, -- one Labour Empey said, if this had been a

Labour Empey, this would have been tantamount to a hit squad. There's a

mutual aid agreement, the city London Corporation chief executive,

and so chief executive involved and also Southwark's involved. It is the

Southwark chief executive who has put out a statement as part of a new

group this evening saying they know the initial response was not good

enough on the ground and she is talking through the priorities and

saying that housing will be the main one and revealing that they will be

completing assessments of those who need house the -- who need housing

and they are according other people to come forward if they haven't.

Thanks for joining us. Today prayers have been said

for those affected by the fire, at church services, and by members

of the Muslim community. The Dean of Kensington is among

local faith leaders who've been This week has done a few things for

me, it has given me a real love for the people of North Kensington. It

has also made me realise that not only do we do that kind of with

prayers and financially, but we do this politically and we speak up for

people who feel like nobody listens to them.

Just time for a quick look at the weather before we go.

Another very warm and muggy night - temperatures only falling to 16C.

Another hot and sunny day tomorrow - a top

And that heat continues for the next few days.

Asad Ahmad will be back tomorrow morning with our