What to do after Grenfell? Stop building these family-unfriendly tower blocks for a start | Simon Jenkins

Remedial action to make the cladding on buildings safer could take 20 years. In the meantime, we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past

The Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 was a tragedy. Preventing its repetition is a fiasco. The latest National Audit Office (NAO) report suggests that 60% of similar towers have yet to be identified, leading to a total cladding removal cost that could reach a staggering £22.4bn.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s best estimate is that the...