The Grenfell fire tragedy has thrown up scores of questions about our public services, about the impact of austerity and about other socio-economic policies. I want to focus on one, the wider issue of risk and accountability which was highlighted last week by Lord Bob Kerslake at a Lawyers in Local Government seminar.

In a nutshell, when a disaster strikes the public expects someone or something to stand up and be counted. Failure to show visible leadership results in heads rolling as occurred at Kensington and Chelsea. The rightful assumption is that the council, as the democratically elected body and the leader of place, must take responsibility and be accountable.