Materials made by a company implicated in the Grenfell Tower disaster have been installed on a pair of nearby council tower blocks during fire safety works, in a move met with outrage in the west London community.
Insulation made by Kingspan, the firm that provided some of the combustible foam on the tower, which went up in flames on 14 June 2017 killing 72 people, was discovered last week on the Adair and Hazelwood towers, a few hundred metres from Grenfell.
Residents of the council-owned towers have been enduring a £7m recladding project to install non-combustible panels after fire risk assessments in 2018 identified “potential concerns with the cladding system” and round-the-clock fire wardens were deployed.
In 2021, after local anger that Kingspan materials were found being installed in a primary school in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), the council announced a ban on use of the firm’s products in borough projects.
“It’s a disgrace,” said Sue Duggins, the chair of the Goldborne residents’ association, which represents people in the two towers. “We shouldn’t be hearing the word Kingspan in this community. Nobody in this area wants to be in a home wrapped in Kingspan. Practically everyone here knows someone at Grenfell.”
The public inquiry into the Grenfell disaster heard that Kingspan sold a combustible foam insulation that burned like a “raging inferno” based, it was alleged, on out-of-date tests on an earlier product with a different chemical composition. Lawyers for the victims told the inquiry in 2020 that Kingspan, alongside Arconic, which made the cladding panels, and Celotex, which made 95% of the insulation used, were “little more than crooks and killers”.
Kingspan has denied wrongdoing and stressed it made only 5% of the insulation used on the tower and that its material was “misused” in an “unsafe and non-compliant system” without its knowledge.
It has said it has since conducted 15 fire tests of its K15-brand insulation in cladding systems that showed it was safe for use in those systems.
The inquiry is yet to draw its conclusions but has already said the principal reason for the spread of fire was the ACM cladding manufactured by Arconic.
There is no suggestion Kingspan sold the latest product directly to the Adair tower project or knew of its destination.
Last week, council workers found the firm’s insulation had been fitted to 16 balconies at the tower blocks and ordered the contractor, Lawtech, to immediately remove and replace it. The product was not combustible, the council said.
“Lawtech’s use of Kingspan is an absolute breach of our instruction and trust,” said Kim Taylor-Smith, the lead council member for Grenfell housing, housing and social investment. “I am deeply disappointed and have asked for a full explanation of how this has happened. I expect Lawtech to make an apology to our residents.
“We made a public commitment in 2021 that the council would no longer contract with Kingspan, nor would we allow our contractors to subcontract with them or allow its use by any subcontractors on any projects in the borough. We stand by this commitment.”
The ban was a local political decision and does not apply elsewhere. The council said it would carry out spot checks “to reassure our residents”, and the cost of the material’s removal would be paid for by the contractor, not the council or residents.
Grenfell United, which represents bereaved families and survivors, said: “We are disgusted that once again contractors such as Lawtech have shown complete disregard and allowed Kingspan’s product back into the homes of social housing tenants in Kensington and Chelsea. The lack of oversight that allowed this to happen is extremely concerning.”
Duggins said the discovery of the material further undermined trust between the council and residents. “I think RBKC is rotten to the core and has to go,” she said. “They need to be put in special measures.”
Lawtech said it was an “isolated error” and “posed no risk whatsoever to any resident” but accepted it breached the RBKC ban. “Lawtech have a very strict company policy of only installing non-flammable product on any of our projects,” it said.
