Companies criticised by the Grenfell Tower inquiry are facing calls to be banned from public contracts as it emerged that about £250m in deals have been made in the past five years with corporations involved in the high-rise’s refurbishment.
A leading member of Grenfell United, which represents bereaved family members and survivors of the tower’s 2017 fire, said companies found to have been to blame should no longer receive public contracts.
Searches of public contracts by the outsourcing data firm Tussell for the Guardian found numerous deals between councils, health authorities and housing associations and the companies that were involved in the disastrous refurbishment as well as their subsidiaries.
They include companies currently or formerly owned by Saint-Gobain, which made the combustible Celotex insulation used on the tower, and Rydon, the main contractor for the works.
Speaking before Wednesday’s publication of the final public inquiry report on causes of the 2017 fire, Karim Mussilhy of Grenfell United said: “If we see that these companies behaved fraudulently and manipulated the system, it’s not unreasonable to remove them from any public contracts and frameworks in the UK.”
Mussilhy’s uncle, Hesham Rahman, was among 15 disabled people who died in the fire. Rahman had been allocated a 23rd-floor flat, could not use the stairs, and no fire crews were able to reach him.
Rahman, 57, was trapped by dense smoke that penetrated his flat while he lay on his living room floor holding a wet cloth over his nose, the inquiry heard.
Joe Powell, the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater, which includes Grenfell Tower, said that if he were in the government’s position he would suspend the ability of Rydon and Saint-Gobain to bid for public contracts “until they are able to properly account for what went wrong, and that includes properly contributing financially to solving the building safety crisis”.
He added: “I would absolutely not want to see anybody working with Arconic [the US firm that made the combustible panels that were the main cause of fire spread], and I think they should be held accountable, both through the Met [police] investigation and in this [inquiry] report, and they should be contributing to paying to solve the building safety crisis.”
Members of the Grenfell community believe Wednesday’s report should increase the likelihood of criminal prosecutions and will end what the counsel to the inquiry, Richard Millett KC, described as a “merry-go-round of buck-passing” by companies and public authorities.
A cross-party parliamentary housing group said it would rethink a sponsorship deal with Saint-Gobain.
The all-party parliamentary group on healthy homes and buildings includes members from the Labour and Conservative benches. Approached about the arrangement with Saint-Gobain by the Guardian, Jim Shannon, the group’s chair and Democratic Unionist party MP, said it would “reconsider” the deal.
The first phase of the inquiry found that the insulation contributed to the blaze and released toxic gas. “We want to ensure the wishes of those who lost loved ones are fully taken into account,” Shannon said.
The pressure for consequences for the companies involved comes amid anxiety among bereaved and survivors that any criminal trials are probably about three years away.
The inquiry has cost public authorities well over £200m, largely in legal fees, and there is frustration at the continued commercial success of several of the businesses involved.
Kingspan, which made a small amount of the insulation and was accused in the inquiry of “misleading the market about the safety and compliance” of its foam insulation on tall buildings, has achieved rising pre-tax profits in the years since the disaster, hitting €794m last year.
Arconic made a pre-tax profit of $706m in 2022.
By contrast, Studio E, the architecture practice involved in the refurbishment design, went into liquidation in 2020 and Rydon Group made a £15m pre-tax loss over the last two years as it paid millions to fix fire safety issues on other projects.
The bill for running the public inquiry has reached £173m, while the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London fire brigade spent a further £15m each on their participation.
The Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which managed the block, racked up £6m in inquiry costs. Further millions spent on lawyers by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Home Office have yet to be disclosed.
Grenfell United has joined with the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group and families involved in the infected blood inquiry to call for a national oversight mechanism to ensure that recommendations that emerge from costly public inquiries are not ignored.
Powell said it was a good idea to have “a system that means future governments will also have to properly account for implementation”.
In a statement, Celotex said it and Saint-Gobain wished to “reaffirm their deepest sympathies to everyone affected by the devastating tragedy at Grenfell Tower”.
“Through the inquiry process and the internal review conducted, Celotex Limited has sought to understand and learn from the issues raised by the fire,” it said. “Independent safety tests commissioned after the review showed the system described in Celotex RS5000 marketing literature met relevant safety criteria.
“Celotex Limited does not design or install cladding systems and did not do so at Grenfell Tower. The design, construction and component selection for the Grenfell Tower facade were decisions made by construction industry professionals.”
A spokesperson for Arconic said: “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.
“Arconic Architectural Products SAS [a subsidiary of Arconic that supplied the sheets of aluminium composite cladding] 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.”
Rydon was also contacted for comment.
