The government has confirmed the hard line it will take against manufacturing companies and others that have to be investigated following events like the Grenfell tragedy, in which 72 people died in 2017.
Seven organisations will be investigated over the Grenfell Tower disaster and all recommendations of a public inquiry will be met, the government said.
Companies could be prevented from bidding for public contracts, the government has confirmed in its response to the final report of the Grenfell Inquiry. The inquiry found all their deaths were avoidable, concluding that the fire was the result of a chain of failures by governments, ‘dishonest’ companies and the fire service which lacked a strategy for dealing with high rise cladding fires.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, who is also deputy prime minister, said the Grenfell Inquiry had uncovered ‘serial incompetence and negligence, complacency and inaction, and blatant dishonesty and greed’ which led to the fire.
She said the government was acting on the inquiry’s findings and would take tough action to reform the system and ‘ensure no community will ever have to face a tragedy like Grenfell ever again’. She said:”That means greater accountability, stronger regulation, and putting residents at the heart of decision-making,” she added, saying it was owed “to the memory of those who lost their lives”.
The Housing Secretary said three of the organisations to be investigated – manufacturing companies Arconic, Kingspan, and Celotex – were found by the inquiry to have acted with systemic dishonesty.
The full list of seven companies set to be investigated for professional misconduct is: Arconic Architectural Products SAS which made cladding; Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK Limited, which at the time of the fire owned insulation firm Celotex Limited; Exova (UK) Limited which carried out fire risk safety assessments; cladding installer Harley Facades Limited; Kingspan Insulation Limited, which manufactured insulation; main project contractor Rydon Maintenance Limited; and architects Studio E Architects Limited.
They will be investigated using powers under the Procurement Act 2023 that came into force on 24 February 2025.
The government also opened consultation on a new Construction Products Reform Green Paper this week, setting out possible penalties for companies found to have breached safety obligations.