A long chain of contractual relationships link the local authority owners of Grenfell Tower to the manufacturers of the cladding panel on the outside of the building.
The landlords are The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, which outsourced management of its housing stock to Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, the largest of its kind in England, running nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of the Conservative-run council.
It, in turn, hired specialist refurbishment firm Rydon to modernise the building under an £8.6 million contract that included fitting the external cladding.
Rydon’s chief executive Robert Bond has insisted in a statement that its project “met all required building regulations and handover took place when the completion notice was issued by the Department of Building Control, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea”. This updated an earlier statement that also said it met all required “fire regulation“ standards.
Grenfell Tower aftermath - In pictures
Rydon employed a sub-contractor, the family-owned Harley Facades to install the cladding. It was paid £2.6 million as part of the refurbishment job completed last summer. Ray Bailey, managing director at the Sussex based company, said: “This is an incredibly tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the residents and their families who have suffered such a personal loss. We will fully support and cooperate with the investigations into this fire.
“There will be many questions about this whole incident and so you will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for us to comment or for others to speculate on any aspect of fire or it causes in advance of these inquiries. At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower.”
