I lived near that place when I first move to London and trust me, it is very, very, very nasty there. Not a place to go out at night alone.
I'm guessing they're going to find that place was a tinder box and people were being fleeced by a dodgy landlord.
Landlord is the local authority, and as everyone has been saying, it looks like the cladding may have been the conduit for the fire to spread. All the towers by Archway tube station near me have just been clad to look better. It's happening everywhere. If they've been using flammable cladding in these places then that is madness. Not without reason was London constructed of brick and stone after 1666, and more recently concrete and glass.
I dunno how long ago that was when you were there WES, but if it was 20 years or so then it will have changed. I've walked past that block twice in the last couple of years and like so much of London now, it is mixed. Grim but slightly improving council estates nestled alongside streets of million or multi-million-pound houses. Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill and Holland Park are only minutes away.