Seven firms named in the Grenfell report are now under investigation and could face a complete ban from public work in the UK.
Leading manufacturers and contractors in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower exhibited “disgraceful mercenary behaviour” and will be investigated for a complete debarment, housing secretary Angela Rayner said.
Main contractor Rydon Maintenance – which led the refurbishment job on Grenfell Tower – and insulation provider Kingspan are among those that will be under the microscope, Rayner said in a speech to the House of Commons earlier today (26 February).
Saint Gobain, the former parent company of Celotex, another insulation provider involved in the refurbishment job, is also under investigation. Saint Gobain sold off Celotex in 2023.
Cladding manufacturer Arconic, architect firm Studio E, cladding subcontractor Harley Facades and fire safety consultancy Exova (UK) are all facing debarment as well.
The firms all came in for substantial criticism in the Grenfell Phase Two report, which was published in September.
Speaking to the House, Rayner said: “To my disgust and their shame, some [firms] have shown little remorse and have refused to even help fix the building safety crisis that they did so much to create.
“Companies must be held to account for their role in Grenfell.”
The government will investigate the firms using new powers under the Procurement Act, and could launch investigations into other organisations in due course.
In a written statement published online, parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office Georgia Gould said the firms’ names will be added “to a published and centrally managed debarment list” if the government finds they engaged in supplier misconduct.
That list “must be taken into account by contracting authorities in awarding new contracts and undertaking new procurements”, Gould added.
It is unclear on what grounds the government could ban the firms, as the act’s guidance says: “Where an event occurred longer than five years ago, it is not considered to give rise to the risks the regime is seeking to mitigate against.”
In November, the government sent letters to 49 firms involved in the Grenfell Tower refurbishment, warning them that they could be banned from public procurement.
Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s report found that Rydon bore “considerable responsibility” for the Grenfell Tower fire, which claimed 72 lives in 2017.
“Rydon saw its role as little more than the conductor of a large and varied orchestra,” the phase two report found. It also criticised the contractor for failing to investigate the competence of the subcontractors it employed on the job, and said Rydon appeared to have “no interest” in the involvement of a fire engineer at Grenfell Tower.
Kingspan and Celotex, which both provided insulation for the site, and Arconic, the cladding manufacturer, were also criticised extensively for their work on Grenfell Tower.
Kingspan – which provided around 5 per cent of the building’s insulation – showed “persistent dishonesty” in how it marketed its K15 insulation materials, “in pursuit of commercial gain coupled with a complete disregard for fire safety”, the report concluded.
Fellow manufacturer Celotex, which provided more than 95 per cent of the building’s insulation, “embarked on its own campaign to break into the market by dishonest means”.
In particular, it did not disclose that a report saying its RS5000 insulation was suitable for use on high-rise buildings – cited in Celotex’s marketing literature – had been “manipulated”.
Arconic manufactured the external aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding used on the Grenfell Tower. The firm “had been aware for many years” before the fire that its statements about the fire performance of its Reynobond 55PE cladding were “inaccurate”, the inquiry report found.
Cladding subcontractor Harley Facades “failed in many respects to meet the standards expected of a reasonably competent cladding contractor”, according to the phase two report.
It also said the firm bore “a significant degree of responsibility” for the fire and “did not concern itself sufficiently with fire safety at any stage of the refurbishment”.
Harley “failed to ask the kind of questions about the materials being considered that a reasonably competent cladding contractor would have asked”, the report added.
The inquiry also found that Harley’s staff were unaware of the Building Regulations and guidance related to fire safety, and did not understand the underlying testing regime.
The inquiry’s report added that fire engineer Exova “bears considerable responsibility for the fact that Grenfell Tower was in a dangerous condition on completion of the refurbishment”.
Architecture firm Studio E fell into liquidation in the years since the fire.
