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The inquiry has found they failed to properly consider the danger of combustible materials in high-rise residential buildings The devastating Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people was the result of “decades of failure” by government and the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings, a long-awaited report has found. The west London tower block was covered in combustible products because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms who made […]

Scam-related complaints have reached their highest level since at least early 2018, according to a service that resolves disputes between consumers and financial firms. In the first quarter of this financial year (April 1 to June 30), consumers lodged 8,734 gripes about fraud and scams, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said. More than half were in relation to customer-approved online bank transfers, also known as authorised push payment (APP) scams. The quarterly scam complaints […]

Hundreds of healthcare support staff will stage a 48-hour strike from Wednesday in an escalating dispute over pay. Unison said its members at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Foundation Trust will walk out and mount picket lines outside hospitals. The union said it will be the first time healthcare support staff in London have gone on strike independently of national NHS disputes, highlighting the “gravity” of the situation. Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “These […]

Conservative MPs will take part in the first round of voting as they select a successor to Rishi Sunak. The first ballot in the Tory leadership contest will take place on Wednesday afternoon, which will begin the process of narrowing the list of the current six candidates. An announcement on the result of the first round is expected at about 3.30pm. Further voting rounds will take place throughout September, aimed […]

A long-awaited report into the deaths of 72 people in a fire at Grenfell Tower is due to be published more than seven years after the blaze. The lengthy document – the final report of the inquiry into the 2017 disaster – is expected to lay out in detail its findings around the actions of corporate firms in the construction industry, the local authority, London Fire Brigade and government. Families […]

Steve Bruce is back in management with Sky Bet League One Blackpool. Bruce has signed a two-year contract to replace Neil Critchley, who was sacked on August 21 after opening the current campaign with successive defeats. The 63-year-old former Manchester United defender left his most recent role at West Brom in October 2022, just eight months into an 18-month contract. “I’m delighted to be back in football and to take […]

Singer Sir Elton John has been left with “only limited vision” after a “severe eye infection”. The 77-year-old revealed he was healing from the infection in one eye, but said his recovery would take “some time”. In a post on Instagram, Sir Elton said: “Over the summer, I’ve been dealing with a severe eye infection that has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye. “I am healing, […]

A coroner has warned that a common way of giving anaesthetic to patients poses a risk of future deaths, after a woman was administered too much local anaesthetic by mistake and died three months later. Dr Rachel Gibson, who had severe osteoarthritis, had hip replacement surgery at Spire Lea Hospital in Cambridge on April 12, 2022, according to a coroner’s report. Philip Barlow, assistant coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said […]

Two ballistic missiles have blasted a military training facility and nearby hospital in Ukraine, killing at least 49 people and wounding more than 200 others, Ukrainian officials said. It is one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began. The strike hit the central-eastern city of Poltava, the capital of the region of the same name, partially destroying a building used by the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, Ukrainian […]