The dark heart of the cladding scandal has been exposed

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has exposed the dark heart of the building safety crisis in recent weeks, as it examined the role of cladding and insulation firms in causing the fire. We have learned that the products used in the tower’s cladding system were known to be severely flammable and that tests pointing this out were suppressed by the manufacturers as they chased lucrative contracts for high rise buildings.

There is no underplaying the size of what has been revealed by this section of the inquiry. This is a monstrous corporate scandal, enabled by failures of some of the construction sector’s most respected institutions. The effects reach far beyond Grenfell, with innocent flat owners currently facing bankruptcy to pay for the removal of these and other products from the walls of their homes.

The primary evidence has involved three companies: Kingspan, an Ireland-based multinational which turned over £2.4bn globally from selling insulated panels in 2020; Celotex, an arm of the French-multinational Saint Gobain and Arconic, an American giant which traces its routes right back to the historic Aluminium Company of America.