GOVERNMENT deregulation and “watered-down” fire safety laws are to blame for the Grenfell Tower disaster, according to the firefighters union.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said the Building Act, brought in by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1984, put interests of profit-making developers above safety of residents in high rise buildings.

Further revisions to the act over the past three decades have removed key building regulations that the FBU said has created a system that allowed “manifold failures of fire protection measures” at Grenfell Tower.

The absence of any statutory body devoted to fire safety checks on buildings also “contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire”, according to the report that was launched by the FBU and Labour MP for Kensington North Emma Coad at the Labour Party conference in Brighton on Monday.

The report said: “Arguably, London had the most robust post-war regulatory regime, as a result of its specific London Building Acts, London by-laws and its district surveyors. This was dissolved in 1985.

“In parallel to watering down building safety regulation, Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s attacked the laws designed to improve fire safety, underfunded the fire service and attacked national standards meant to help firefighters protect the public.”

It added: “Since the 1980s, the management of risk has squeezed out firefighters, other workers and their trade union representatives who practise fire safety as their profession. This expertise has mostly been substituted with management consultants, industry lobbyists and chief fire officers.

“These agents have operated within a political climate that has emphasised the need for reducing regulation. This has been driven by central government.

“An ideology of deregulation has blighted efforts to improve the living conditions of millions. Central government failed to provide the resources necessary to manage risk. Ministers promoted a fire safety regime that was not fit for purpose and that failed so tragically on June 14 2017.

“Central government bears ultimate responsibility for the Grenfell Tower fire.”

The 50-page report lists missed opportunities to make improvements to tower blocks over 50 years since the Ronan Point disaster in 1968.

It also probes the impact of cuts made while Boris Johnson was Mayor of London that shut down Knightsbridge and Westminster fire stations.

It also looks at the impact of the Grenfell fire on firefighters who have “all suffered from the physical and mental effects of intervening in the fire”.