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Peter Apps

3 Dec, 12 tweets, 3 min read

Right so, today at the inquiry we filled in a new piece of the puzzle surrounding the government's failure to change regulations in time to stop Grenfell 🧵

insidehousing.co.uk/news/key-gover…

We have known since 2018 that the key official responsible for Approved Document B (the guidance which covers fire safety) had attended an industry briefing on 2 July 2014, where very specific warnings were given about combustible insulation and cladding insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/gove…

(I know it's probably poor form to do the whole 'this was my scoop' thing, but this was my scoop)

Anyway, that meeting contained very clearly delivered warnings about the use of combustible ACM cladding and insulation on high rises. Here's what was said about insulation:

Brian Martin (the official) had promised to publish an 'FAQ' making it clear that the use of combustible cladding was not in line with regs. But nothing was ever delivered. Today we got to go one step further into that story.

On 11 July 2014 (nine days after that meeting) we now know that Mr Martin emailed the NHBC (country's biggest private building inspector) to follow up on these concerns. Described it as a "friendly warning".

NHBC were actually at this stage in quite a protracted dispute with Kingspan at this point about the use of its K15 insulation on high rises. NHBC's Steve Evans responded to Mr Martin with a very detailed email explaining how and why Kingspan was so widely used.

But then this chain gets forwarded to Kingspan, and they respond very aggressively, saying the claims Mr Evans has made about their product are false and referring to two recent successful test passes

But there was a problem. Both of these tests were not done on the K15 that was on the market but a new 'research and development' product which was never sold. And one of the two tests was actually a failure (although Kingspan was contesting this)

"What I'm going to suggest to you is it was a deliberate lie, all of this, it wasn't just inadvertent, it was a deliberate strategy to deceive not just NHBC and the various professionals but also DCLG potentially," inquiry counsel Kate Grange said today.

Tony Millichap, former head of technical at Kingspan who helped draft the letter, said: "That was never my intention."

So now we have a question. Was this communicated back to DCLG and did it allay Mr Martin's concerns?

All of this is very significant because at this exact point in west London, the refurbishment team were finalising the decisions about what insulation and cladding to use on Grenfell Tower.

A prompt and public warning from government officials not to use combustibles on tall buildings and who knows...

Doubtless we will hear more from Mr Martin when the inquiry finally gets round to government this time next year (ends)

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More from @PeteApps

Peter Apps

@PeteApps

3 Dec

Lunchtime update from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry:

- Govt officials warned about use of Kingspan insulation on high rises in 2014
- Kingspan accused of "lying" to them about testing which had been carried out on new 'trial product' - not material actually on market

We saw important new emails today which show Brian Martin (the official in charge of Approved Document B) was specifically and clearly warned about the use of K15 on high rises in summer 2014

In July 2014, he wrote to the NHBC saying "allegedly" PIR insulation had been used on buildings above 18m in height and asking for info. I think this follows a meeting about cladding risks from the same month, which I obtained the minutes of in 2018 insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/gove…

Read 18 tweets

Peter Apps

@PeteApps

2 Dec

Had a 10-odd tweet thread giving a customary lunchtime update from the inquiry, but had my six-month-old on my lap and he leaned over and clicked the mouse and it all disappeared

Realise this is the lockdown equivalent of "the dog ate my homework" but there we go.

Anyway - very brief version of what I was going to say is that this morning we've been hearing from this Tony Millichap, head of technical at Kingspan from 2010-2015

He's been grilled on his knowledge of K15, its testing and certificates and advice Kingspan gave to the market about its suitability for high rises. Built towards the QC suggesting that this advice was "entirely misleading" which he denied

Read 9 tweets

Peter Apps

@PeteApps

2 Dec

Current Kingspan witness is boasting that the firm was a "thought-leader" in terms of the compliance of combustible materials for the walls of high rise buildings...

"We had quite a lot of input into influencing how this could be understood and interpretting the regulations as we saw them."

He says that the firm did this through "explaining the fundamentals" to professionals who called up to query where the insulation could be used

This sits against other witness evidence who have said they assumed the industry would understand when and where Kingspan's insulation could be used because they were experienced professionals - effectively downplaying the role of the firm.

Read 4 tweets

Peter Apps

@PeteApps

1 Dec

Report from today at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry:

Kingspan used pass on new 'trial product' to keep selling its insulation for high rises after a consultancy warned it would tell the industry it was not suitable in 2013, inquiry hears

insidehousing.co.uk/news/kingspan-…

Incidentally, this is Wintech, the self-same consultancy who were Kingspan was internally saying could "go fuck themselves... or we will sue the arse of them".

Among the only organisations emerging from this with any credit:

Following this emai Kingspan commissioned some new testing and after failing a few times it passed with a new system in July 2014. It began telling the market about this "good news". But unfortunately the pass was on a new trial product, not what was being sold.

Read 5 tweets

Peter Apps

@PeteApps

1 Dec

Lunchtime update from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry:

Dr Malcolm Rochefort grilled over why Kingspan's insulation was not withdrawn from the market after tests showed a deteriorating fire performance

Much of this evidence has already been discussed over the last two weeks, but the inquiry has been asking Rochefort about the change in way of making its flagship insulation for high rises, K15, in 2006 and subsequent testing of that material

(Your regular reminder that a small quantity of K15 was used on Grenfell, but the product has been sold and installed for high rises for 15 years and is on hundreds, possibly thousands)

Read 17 tweets

Peter Apps

@PeteApps

30 Nov

This morning we've seen that the former technical manager at Kingspan reacted to queries about the fire safety of its insulation by saying "they're getting me confused with someone who gives a damn" and "they can go fuck themselves".

It was among the insulation used on Grenfell.

He added in one email "imagine a fire running up this tower!!!!!!" and said "we will sue the arse off them" about a consultancy which was raising concerns.

Its use on high rises was justified on the basis of a test which was not representative of real world systems.

It was also justified based on testing which used an older version of the product, with the newer version burning like a "raging inferno" when tested. Kingspan did not release this information to the market. The insulation is currently on hundreds of high rises around the country

Read 4 tweets

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