A pretty extraordinary morning just gone where we saw video footage from a January 2016 conference where a cladding fabricator warned of the wide-use of ACM (the cladding used on Grenfell) and the chair described it as a potential "ticking time bomb" 
Audience member was Nick Jenkins, then of Euroclad. He warned that the material was in wide use in the UK and as a result "You could have an exact repeat of the Dubai fire in any number of buildings that we supply product to in London"
Steve Evans of the NHBC (largest building control body in the UK) was on the panel and agreed with Jenkins that an "anomaly" in official guidance this type of cladding "would meet the regulations". He told the inquiry today this was not his view and it was "badly worded"
Asked by the chair if the issue was "a time bomb", Mr Evans responded that "you'll have to ask our customers" (house builders).
Incidentally, I've found slides of his presentation where he outlined the risks to the industry of dangerous cladding. He mentions manslaughter.
Incidentally, I've found slides of his presentation where he outlined the risks to the industry of dangerous cladding. He mentions manslaughter.
Jenkins then took this up with Brian Martin (senior govt official) via email following the conference. He told Mr Martin the product was in very wide use and said he had "grave concerns" about it. Asked for govt to provide clear statement that it was banned.
Martin declined, telling him he did not think the guidance was "all that ambiguous" and "it is for the designer and the building control body to consider if [the regulations] have been met". Huge opportunity to sound the alarm missed.
Full report at the end of the day.
Full report at the end of the day.
And here's our report from today if anyone wants a fuller story: insidehousing.co.uk/news/senior-go…
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