The Government was warned earlier this year of the deadly danger posed by fire safety failings in tower blocks, as it emerged it had earlier shelved indefinitely a promised fire safety review.

The Government’s inaction was brought under new scrutiny this week after at least a dozen people died when a fire ripped through a West London residential block in the early hours of 14 June.

The March 2017 warning came in report into a July 2009 fire in the 14-storey Lakanal House in South London, in which six people died.

The All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety and Rescue Group of MPs called for a fire safety review in the wake of the tragedy.

However, the Government’s subsequent commitment to review fire safety requirements in the building regulations was delayed and has yet to take place.

There are still 4,000 tower blocks that are under the same old building regulations as those in Lakanal House. It’s not clear whether the 27-storey Grenfell Tower, where this week’s horrific blaze broke out, was built according to those regulations. At least 12 people died in the fire, with many more in a critical condition in hospital. The fatalities total is expected to rise. Tenants at Grenfell Tower had warned repeatedly about the risk of deadly fire at the building. They said they had “predicted a catastrophe” but claimed their safety warnings “fell on deaf ears”. A 20 November 2016 blog posting by the Grenfell Action Group predicted “only a catastrophic event” would result in tenants’ concerns being heard. It added: “Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of… residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur”.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the firefighters’ union FBU, said: “The thoughts of firefighters from all over the UK will be with the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families. Lives have been lost, many people have suffered serious injuries and others will be made homeless as a result of the fire.” He added: “A full investigation will need to be undertaken at the first possible opportunity to establish exactly what happened and what can be done to prevent such an incident happening again.” Prime minister Theresa May said there would be a full investigation and “if there are any lessons to be learned they will be.”