Grenfell Tower is to be demolished, Angela Rayner announces

The Grenfell Tower block in west London will be demolished, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner confirmed today.

An inferno in the block in 2017 claimed the lives of 72 people in total, with dozens more injured. The Government said it is expected to take 'around two years to sensitively take down' the tower, with no changes before the eighth anniversary of the disaster in June.

The blaze broke out inside the 24-storey tower block on June 14, 2017. At 12.54am, the first of many calls was made to the London Fire Brigade reporting a fire had broken out in a fourth-floor flat. It triggered a huge emergency services response but barely half an hour later, at 1.29am, the flames had climbed to the top floor of the high-rise.

The tragedy went on to highlight the use of combustible materials in the external walls and cladding of high-rise residential buildings.

Some bereaved families have reacted with fury over the plan, saying the decision to demolish the block feels like 'taking away our gravestone'. Others said they understood there were safety concerns.

Many had also called for the building to be brought down only to the tenth floor so part of it would be retained as a 'standing memorial'.

The Grenfell Tower inquiry's landmark final report, published in September, concluded that the fire was the result of 'decades of failure' by those in power and those who held responsibility.

The Government will confirm a specialist contractor in the coming months to develop a plan for taking down Grenfell Tower, Downing Street said. Technical experts with specific health and safety responsibilities will lead the work.

It will likely take around two years to take it down through a process of 'careful and sensitive progressive