West London council extends ban on contractors involved Grenfell Tower fire

Kensington and Chelsea Council has approved extending a ban on contractors involved in the Grenfell Tower Fire from future contracts. The decision was finalised during a leadership meeting on December 11 and comes after the proposal was announced last month.

Cllr Sof McVeigh, lead member for housing management, safety and new homes, said extending and widening the ban was “absolutely the right thing to do”. She told her colleagues on Wednesday evening (December 11): “It is absolutely essential to be doing this, the ban on certain contractors that were involved in the terrible Grenfell tragedy.

“It’s absolutely the right thing to do and we were already doing it from 2021 and this was a promise to review it after the enquiry report landed.” Deputy leader Cllr Kim Taylor-Smith asked whether builders operating within the borough but not contracted by the council would follow suit.

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A Kensington and Chelsea Council officer responded, saying developers were already keen to “understand and respect” how the community felt about contractors involved in the Grenfell tragedy.

He said: “My experience is that developers and their housing associations [and] social landlords are always interested in our advice about what it is to operate in this borough in the Grenfell context and included in that is them wanting, for whatever reason, to understand and respect community sentiment in relation to the Grenfell context.

“The clear fact we’ve done this and the clear fact we’ve done this in response to expectations from the bereavement, survivor and wider community means I think we can make it clear to anyone with ambitions to operate in this borough that they need to pay attention to those sentiments.” The ban prohibits Rydon from applying for council contracts and bans contractors and consultants working with the council from sub-contracting to Kingspan, Celotex, Arconic, Siderise and CEP Architectural Facades.

It also prohibits contractors buying products from these companies. The ban came in place in 2021 following a request by campaigners Grenfell United.

A proposal to extend the ban was announced at Full Council last month and comes as Kensington and Chelsea Council formally responded to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 2 report, which found the local authority bore “considerable responsibility” for the tragedy. The council said it had also established a residents' procurement panel to allow the community to have a say in how contractors are selected and managed.

The council had promised to review its 2021 ban once the Inquiry’s Phase 2 report had been released.

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