This Guardian editorial argues that Britain's system of corporate accountability failed the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, in which 72 people, including 18 children, died in June 2017. Arconic, the company whose cladding the public inquiry found was the "primary cause" of the fire's rapid spread, paid more in Grenfell-related settlements to its insurers than out of its own pocket, while the multibillion-pound cost of making other buildings safe has fallen largely on the state; almost a decade on, nobody has faced criminal charges.

A new report from thinktank Common Wealth and financial investigations group FIND proposes two legal reforms for England and Wales: a "failure to prevent" law making firms responsible for guarding against foreseeable harm, and a "punitive damages" system, as used in the US, that would make companies pay according to their conduct rather than just compensating losses. Of Arconic's £86m in settlements, only £1.5m came from the company itself, with insurers covering the rest. The piece contrasts Britain's slow response, with police still investigating 57 individuals and 20 organisations and no charges expected before the tenth anniversary, with Hong Kong's Wang Fuk Court fire, where manslaughter charges were brought within seven months.