Grenfell Tower sees 49 firms sent warning letters following tragedy which killed 72 people

Nearly 50 firms involved in the Grenfell Tower tragedy have been sent warning letters, seven years after a horrific fire took the lives of 72 people in June 2017. According to a new report, initial warning letters have been sent to 49 organisations involved in the tragedy.

Construction News has reported that in September, prime minister Keir Starmer promised that all the firms found to be part of the failings that led to the fire will be written to by the government. These firms include organisations ministers want to ban from public sector work.

It has now been confirmed that all of the firms have been contacted. Junior housing minister Alex Norris said in a statement to Parliament last week: “The prime minister has committed to writing to all companies, including product manufacturers, found by the inquiry to have been part of these horrific failings, as the first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts.

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“This process is being led by the minister for the Cabinet Office. Initial letters have now been sent to all 49 organisations named in the report, each of which bear different levels of responsibility for the failings that led to the Grenfell tragedy, including those that are construction product manufacturers.”

The exact list of which organisations have been contacted is unknown. However, Kingspan Insulation Limited (UK), which provided some insulation used on Grenfell Tower, is one of the firms who have confirmed they have received a letter from the government, according to Construction News. They have not responded to MyLondon's request for a comment.

Kingspan is one of seven named and shamed in the report produced by an inquiry into the tragedy. While Kingspan claimed its K15 insulation product was used in Grenfell Tower without their knowledge, the report found that Kingspan “knowingly created a “false market in insulation” from 2005 onwards for use on buildings over 18 metres tall.

Kingspan had relied on the results of a single, unrepresentative cladding fire safety test performed in 2005. Further tests on systems incorporating K15 in the following two years were “disastrous”, the report said, but Kingspan did not withdraw the product from the market, “despite its own concerns about its fire performance”.

In a statement shared online, a spokesperson for Kingspan said: “We extend our deepest sympathies to the relatives, survivors and others impacted by the Grenfell Tower tragedy. We welcome the publication of the final report from the Public Inquiry, which is crucial to a public understanding of what went wrong and why.

“It explains clearly and unambiguously that the type of insulation (whether combustible or non-combustible) was immaterial, and that the principal reason for the fire spread was the PE ACM cladding, which was not made by Kingspan. Kingspan has long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part of our UK insulation business.

“These were in no way reflective of how we conduct ourselves as a Group, then or now. While deeply regrettable, they were not found to be causative of the tragedy.

“Kingspan has already emphatically addressed these issues, including the implementation of extensive and externally-verified measures to ensure our conduct and compliance standards are world leading. We remain committed to playing a leading role in providing safe and sustainable building solutions, including continuing to work with government and industry partners.”

As well as this, Arconic, the manufacturer of the external aluminium composite material cladding used on Grenfell Tower, confirmed to MyLondon that it had received a letter. Arconic is another firm named in the report.

Arconic Architectural Products made and sold the Reynobond 55 cladding panels with a polyethylene (PE) core which were used in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower and were later found to have fuelled the blaze. The final report noted that polyethylene “burns fiercely” and, when used in cassette form (as in three-dimensional structures), the Reynobond 55 PE was “extremely dangerous”.

A spokesperson for Arconic said: “Arconic’s subsidiary, Arconic Architectural Products SAS (AAP), supplied sheets of aluminium composite material that were used to manufacture the rainscreen for the Grenfell Tower refurbishment.

“The fire was a terrible tragedy and as Arconic remembers the 72 people who died, our thoughts remain with the families, friends and all of those affected.

“AAP was a core participant in the Inquiry and has acknowledged its role as one of the material suppliers involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.

“The company respects the Inquiry process. AAP cooperated fully with the work of the Inquiry and will continue to engage with further legal processes.

“Together with other parties, AAP has made financial contributions to settlements for those affected, as well as to the restorative justice fund.

“Throughout the Inquiry, AAP has maintained a number of points:

· AAP sold sheets of aluminium composite material as specified in the design process. This product was safe to use as a building material, and legal to sell in the UK as well as the more than thirty other countries in which AAP customers purchased the product. We reject any claim that AAP sold an unsafe product.

· AAP regularly conducted tests of its materials using third-party testing bodies. Reports on these results were all publicly available, and AAP made these reports available to its customers.

· AAP did not conceal information from or mislead any certification body, customer, or the public.”

The phase two report stated that, from 2005 until after the Grenfell Tower fire, Arconic “deliberately concealed from the market the true extent of the danger of using Reynobond 55 in cassette form, particularly on high-rise buildings”.

It comes as the final inquiry into the tragedy found "systematic dishonesty" from cladding and insulation companies was the reason Grenfell Tower was covered in flammable materials. Survivors and those left bereaved by the Grenfell Tower tragedy have said that the report shows they were ‘failed by calculated dishonesty and greed’.

Grenfell United has criticised the government who they say ‘aided corporations, facilitating them to profit and dictate regulation’, calling on some of the firms involved to be banned from government contracts.

Got a story for us? Email anna.willis@reachplc.com.

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