Grenfell: Insulation firm seeks to overturn ‘unwarranted’ council ban

An insulation firm has launched a judicial review of the decision by Grenfell Tower’s council to ban it from future projects.

Siderise Insulation Ltd, which manufactured some of the cavity barriers used on Grenfell Tower’s refurbishment in 2015-16, was banned from future work in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) in December.

RBKC banned the use of Rydon, Arconic, Celotex and Kingspan on its projects in 2021. It extended the prohibition last December to include five other firms, including Siderise (see table below for full list).

But Siderise has now initiated judicial review proceedings against the council, arguing that its ban of Siderise products was “unwarranted” and “without foundation or justification”.

In a statement sent to Construction News, the firm said: “It is clear from the Grenfell Inquiry reports that Siderise does not meet RBKC’s criteria for excluding companies.”

It added: “While Siderise products were used in the Grenfell refurbishment, the Grenfell Inquiry report is clear that neither Siderise nor its products contributed to the tragic fire or its spread, and there is no suggestion that Siderise was not candid before the inquiry, and therefore this exclusion is unwarranted,” it added.

“The RBKC decision is therefore without foundation or justification. Siderise is acting to protect its reputation as a British manufacturer which supplies its products globally.”

In December, it said: “There was no finding by the inquiry that our cavity barriers should not have been used in the refurbishment [at Grenfell], nor any finding that their performance caused or contributed to the spread of the fire.”

But the council remains steadfast. “We stand by our decision,” an RKBC spokesperson told CN.

The Grenfell Inquiry phase two report – published in September – said Siderise manufactured the Lamatherm cavity barriers used in the refurbishment of the tower.

It added: “Although there is no evidence of any dishonesty on its part, some aspects of its marketing materials gave cause for concern. It also supplied cavity barriers for use in voids larger than those for which they had been tested.”

In extending its ban to cover the additional firms, RBKC officers announced on 11 December that “there is a need to revise the council’s policy which prohibits the council entering into contracts with certain companies implicated in the [Grenfell] tragedy”.

They added that the council will not engage with firms that had been “shown by the phase two report to have been highly incompetent, or conducted themselves dishonestly or in a way which was misleading, when either marketing their products or in complying with legal or contractual requirements, and this contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire or its spread”.

Nor will RKBC work with companies who were “not candid before the Grenfell Tower Inquiry”, the report added.

In a separate move in December, the UK government initiated plans to ban any firms involved in the Grenfell Tower tragedy from public procurement.

Junior housing minister Alex Norris said at the time that prime minister Keir Starmer had written to 49 firms involved in the tragedy, adding that it was “the first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts”.

But a spokesperson for Siderise told CN: “Siderise do not expect to be part of any restriction in the government’s forthcoming announcements on the matter.”