A statement from the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission: 3 March 2026

We are making today’s statement in response to media coverage that has circulated since last week, and again over the weekend, in several outlets. This media coverage has been incredibly upsetting and difficult for us to read, and especially so for those of us that are bereaved and survivors.

We, the community representatives on the Memorial Commission, have direct and lived experience of being bereaved, survivors, or of living in close proximity to Grenfell Tower. The recent media coverage states that a request was made to the government in August 2025, on behalf of a bereaved family, that a specific element from the Tower should be retained for future conservation. The media coverage also states that this request was not honoured.

As a Memorial Commission, we had no knowledge of any previous requests for conservation that had been made to the government, and only learned of this when we read the media last week. We are grateful to those whose persistence brought this matter to light.

We are dismayed that commitments made by the previous deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner and her predecessors, both during and prior to 2025, and which we referred to in our reports, were disregarded like this. That happened without any discussion, with the affected community, about the approach being taken to the deconstruction of the upper floors of the Tower.

We see this as yet another  betrayal of the Grenfell community’s trust and of the open ways of working that we, the Memorial Commission, have sought to create with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and since establishing the Commission in 2019; and despite the part played by the government in the deaths of our loved ones.

We have requested that MHCLG honours the request that was made, that it engages the relevant specialists to ensure that this and any other such requests are honoured, and that it arranges for the safe removal, safeguarding and storage of requested elements.

We await a confirmed timeline of these measures from MHCLG, and ask that this reassurance be provided to us – and to the rest of the Grenfell community – as a matter of urgency.

The creation of a future memorial that truly reflects our community’s hopes, needs and memories will only be achieved through the continued involvement, at every step, of the bereaved families, the survivors and those that live metres from Grenfell Tower. As an independent Memorial Commission, we are committed to doing all we can to ensure this happens, to help make sure that our community is heard, and to hold responsible institutions to account.

You can speak to us directly by going to our contact page.