Police are planning to build a full-scale replica of part of Grenfell Tower to secure criminal convictions, it has been reported.
The Metropolitan Police has told grieving families that the model, which would take more than a year to build, will help explain how the fire spread in any future trials.
However, families fear they may never ‘see justice’ with the length of time to get to trial has left them questioning whether the inquiry is complex for the force.
A spokesman for Grenfell Next of Kin, which represents the close families of about half the deceased, told the Telegraph: ‘The trust is broken in the Met Police and the systems. Now they want to build a tower and on and on it goes.’
In a letter leaked to the newspaper, the police chief in charge of the investigation said it was ‘essential’ that the replica was ‘built to detailed specification and full-scale to help juries understand the case’.
The replica would have to be constructed inside a warehouse with juries taken to view it.
No final decision has been made on whether the reconstruction will take place, Det Supt Garry Moncrieff, the senior investigating officer, said but the force wanted to let families know of the potential replica first.
Det Supt Moncreiff wrote: ‘As you more than anyone understand, this investigation has taken so long primarily because it is so complex. If there are future criminal trials, then those trials will take place before juries.
The Metropolitan Police has told grieving families that the model it is planning to build a full-scale replica of part of Grenfell Tower
The force said it will help explain how the fire spread in any future trials
The replica would have to be constructed inside a warehouse with juries taken to view it.
‘The police, CPS, and our team of experts have spent a lot of time thinking about how we could best help those jurors understand really complicated evidence and technical topics.
‘Part of my role is to work with the CPS, lawyers and experts to consider how best to present complex evidence to a jury, recognising that Grenfell Tower may no longer be there at the time of a trial.’
The letter also reveals that the number of investigators working on the Grenfell Tower criminal inquiry was being increased to 180.
This comes at a cost of almost £24million this year alone with the final police cost is likely to exceed £100 million.
It was also disclosed that the police force was over halfway through sending preliminary reports to prosecutors.
The reports so far total more than a million words with ‘many thousands of statements, documents and exhibits’ .
By the end of September 2026, the force is planning to have submitted files on 20 separate organisations or companies, and the individual suspects connected to them.
If all 20 files led to charges, it is not clear how trials would take place.
In a statement, Grenfell Next of Kin said: ‘Despite countless words spoken and hundreds of millions of pounds spent, and the immeasurable harm inflicted on the next of kin of those who died, what we have learned is that our justice system is fundamentally flawed. This investigation has clearly overwhelmed the Met Police.’
A Met Police spokesman said: ‘The Grenfell Tower fire is one of the most complex investigations ever undertaken by any UK law enforcement agency. The circumstances are highly unusual in that the criminal investigation and a public inquiry have been conducted at the same time, examining many of the same issues. Though both have examined the same tragedy, their purposes are different and are conducted to different legal standards.
‘We cannot begin to imagine the impact that waiting for the outcome of our investigation must have on those who lost loved ones, those who survived, and all those affected by the tragedy.
‘However, it is critical that we take great care to get this investigation right, and we have a dedicated team of 180 investigators, supported by leading experts, ensuring that we work as quickly as possible without compromising the quality of what we do.
‘At the conclusion of our investigation, we will pass a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for charging decisions. That is an independent consideration for the CPS.
‘However, we have recently explained to the bereaved, survivors and residents of Grenfell Tower that we are considering building a reconstruction of some elements of the building, to help future juries understand the evidence should charges be brought. That reconstruction will not impact upon the timescale of the police investigation.’
In February it was reported that the west London block will be ‘carefully’ taken down over the next two years.
What is left of the tower has stood in place in the years since the disaster, with a covering on the building featuring a large green heart accompanied by the words ‘forever in our hearts’.
The Grenfell Tower fire in West London in June 2017 left 72 people dead in a shocking tragedy
The 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 are pictured as follows – (top row left to right) Mohammad Al-Haj Ali, Ya-Haddy Sisi Saye, also known as Khadija Saye, Anthony Disson, Khadija Khalloufi, Mary Mendy, Isaac Paulos, Sheila, Gloria Trevisan, Marco Gottardi, (second row left to right) Berkti Haftom, Ali Yarwar Jafari, Majorie Vital, Yahya Hashim, Hamid Kani, Jessica Urbano Ramirez, Zainab Deen, Nura Jemal, Jeremiah Deen, (third row left to right) Yasin El-Wahabi, Firdaws Hashim, Hashim Kedir, Debbie Lamprell, Ernie Vital, Sakina Afrasehabi, Denis Mur-phy, Raymond ‘Moses’ Bernard, Biruk Haftom, (fouth row left to right) Yaqub Hashim, Mehdi El-Wahabi, Ligaya Moore, Nur Huda El-Wahabi, Victoria King, Mo-hammed Amied Neda, Maria del Pilar Burton, Hesham Rahman, Gary Maunders, (fifth row left to right) Alexandra Atala, Vincent Chiejina, Steve Power, Rania Ibrahim, Fethia Hassan, Hania Hassan, Fathia Ahmed Elsanousi, Abufras Ibrahim (silhouette), Isra Ibrahim (silhouette), (sixth row left to right) Mariem Elgwahry, Eslah Elgwahry (sil-houette), Mohamednur Tuccu, Amal Ahmedin, Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin, Amna Mahmud Idris, Abdeslam Sebbar (silhouette) , Joseph Daniels (silhouette), Logan Gomes, (seventh row left to right) Omar Belkadi, Farah Hamdan, Malak Belkadi (sil-houette), Leena Belkadi (silhouette), Abdulaziz El-Wahabi, Faouzia El-Wahabi, Fatemeh Afrasiabi, Kamru Miah, Rabeya Begum, (eighth row left to right) Mohammed Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Husna Begum, Bassem Choukair, Nadia Choucair, Mierna Choucair, Fatima Choucair, Zainab Choucair and Sirria Choucair
Views on what should happen to the tower have varied, with the the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government acknowledging there had been hopes for some of it to be retained as a lasting memorial to what happened while others had reported this would be ‘too painful’.
The Government, while noting a feeling among some that the tower’s presence is a reminder of the need for justice and accountability, also confirmed the lower floors will not be kept in place as the tower is ‘carefully taken down to the ground’.
Separately, the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission has been consulting on plans for a permanent memorial in the area of the tower, with recommendations including a ‘sacred space’, designed to be a ‘peaceful place for remembering and reflecting’.
It is expected a planning application for a memorial could be submitted in late 2026.
The blaze, which was the worst in Britain for more than a generation, was accelerated by deadly combustible cladding and many of those who died had been told to stay in their flats.
It resulted in the deaths of 72 men, women and children, including multiple generations of the same families, living in the 120-apartment tower, built in Kensington – one of London’s richest areas.
The fire – the worst residential blaze since the Blitz – triggered mass protests about building standards, following months of concerns from Grenfell Tower residents about safety following its refurbishment.
The final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, published in September, concluded the disaster 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.
