Brigade’s legal costs for Grenfell near £10m

London Fire Brigade sought agreement from the Mayor of London to incur up to £2.9m for Grenfell related legal costs in the 2024/25 year, which brings the potential costs up to nearly £10m over the last four years.

The report to the Deputy Mayor for London’s Fire and Resilience Board was made public before Christmas and details how officers sought financial delegation, ‘To secure legal advice and representation for the Commissioner and appropriate individuals in relation to the Grenfell Tower fire, including but not limited to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, and to include any consequent or related legal action in respect of the Grenfell Tower fire.’

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry completed its evidence gathering in July 2022. in the year up to March 2022, the Brigade incurred over £3m in legal costs, with around half that amount incurred in the subsequent two years.

The costs are far in excess of what is in the Commissioner’s budget of £694k and the report adds, ‘It is anticipated that the majority of any additional costs incurred over and above this budgeted sum of these costs will be recovered from the insurers.’ In a worrying final line in the report, the Brigade notes that where the costs cannot be recovered in this way, it ‘Will be required to reduce its expenditure and/or find compensatory savings to meet any funding gap.’

For similar articles, check out our Leadership channel.