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Grenfell council to extend ban on firms criticised in final inquiry report
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has said it will extend its ban on using firms and their products that were criticised in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report.
Cladding manufacturer Arconic, insulation firms Celotex and Kingspan, and contractor Rydon were initially banned by the council in 2021 from being involved, or having their products used, in projects.
However, following the inquiry’s final report into the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people, RBKC has said it will extend that ban.
“We will strengthen our existing ban on contractors and products implicated in the Grenfell Tower fire from use by the council,” RBKC said in a report presented at a full council meeting this week.
A complete ban on combustible materials will also be enforced on all the council’s new build and refurbishment projects, it said.
Details of the restrictions will be finalised at a meeting on 11 December, including how they will be enforced and a full list of the firms that will be banned, which is likely to be added to depending on a decision by council leaders.
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A spokesperson told Inside Housing: “The ban is likely to encompass construction and building industry companies named as core participants in the inquiry.”
Around the time the final report was released, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer also said that firms condemned in the inquiry will no longer be considered for public contracts.
RBKC’s latest announcement came as part of its formal response to the inquiry’s final report, released in September.
In the report, RBKC was criticised for its limited oversight of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which managed the council’s social housing stock.
RBKC’s building control failed to properly scrutinise the 2015-16 refurbishment of Grenfell Tower with combustible cladding, meaning it “bears considerable responsibility” for the dangerous condition of the building, the report found.
It also said the council failed to involve residents in procurement decisions relevant to their homes and flagged the breakdown in the relationship between residents and the council.
RBKC said that although procurement decisions are now being more closely monitored, “performance monitoring of contracts once awarded needs strengthening”.
“We lack a centralised system for monitoring contractor performance across the organisation, and our approach to resident involvement in procurement needs to be more consistent outside of housing.”
RBKC committed to requiring safety assessments for all major decisions, implementing a new contract management framework and having committees regularly examine safety-critical and high-risk contracts.
Residents will also now have a voice in how the council selects and manages contractors through a new resident procurement panel, in a bid to “reset the power imbalance between residents and local government”, RBKC said.
Since the report’s publication, the bereaved, survivors and residents have given feedback on how the council should respond.
“Despite the changes we have made, some residents are telling us that basic problems around treatment of people in social housing and questions of race, disability and social discrimination persist,” the council report said.
As a result, RBKC has commissioned a review of the council’s culture and its complaints process.
An independent advisory panel will be established, made up of bereaved family members, survivors and residents alongside independent experts in social housing, safety and customer service.
In a speech to the council on Wednesday 27 November, Elizabeth Campbell, leader of RBKC, said: “The findings of the Grenfell Inquiry should make every local authority and social landlord examine their own practices, culture and assumptions with renewed scrutiny and heightened moral purpose.
“I am grateful for the generosity that bereaved, survivors and residents have shown once again in giving their time and energy to help us make this organisation better. In the same way our communities show their commitment to us, we must demonstrate our commitment to them.”
RBKC said its building control had been “overhauled” since 2017 to prioritise safety, staff training and record-keeping. It has also established in-house fire safety and housing services teams.
Other changes include training staff to view resilience and emergency response as part of their core responsibilities and including specific resilience responsibilities in the job descriptions for all senior officer roles.
The council said an action plan will be published early next year, which will set out timescales, roles and responsibilities.
A Kingspan spokesperson pointed to the statement it issued following the publication of the inquiry’s final report. In the statement, the firm said it had "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."
Arconic, Celotex, and Rydon have been contacted for comment.
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