The proposed public sector contract ban on firms linked to the Grenfell fire will initially focus on the “most appalling companies”, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner told MPs yesterday.
In November, the government announced that initial warning letters had been sent by the government to 49 organisations involved in the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Rayner told the House of Commons last night (2 December) that new guidance will be issued early next year to stop selected firms bidding for government contracts.
Rayner said: “Organisations will hold different levels of responsibility, but I can announce that we will publish guidance early next year to support the first set of decisions that will stop the most appalling companies from being awarded government contracts.”
Her comments came in a debate on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase two report, which was published on 4 September.
She added that the government will press construction firms to reform their working practices.
“We now need leadership from industry to step up the pace on cultural change across the construction sector, but more crucially, we need a cultural shift that is about empowering people so that we put people and safety first, not profits,” Rayner said.
“Let me be crystal clear: we will be holding industry to account as closely as we need to,” she added.
“I know that members across this house share my desire that this report be a catalyst for change.”
Ahead of the debate, the local authority that owned Grenfell Tower, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, revealed it was looking to strengthen its ban on firms named in the inquiry’s report.
Rayner’s latest announcement received cross-party support.
Shadow secretary of state for levelling up Kevin Hollinrake criticised the “systemic dishonesty in the construction industry”.
He said: “Companies implicated in such wrongdoing should not receive future public contracts.”
Senior Labour MP Clive Betts urged Rayner to ensure the guidance will be extended to cover contracts awarded by councils and the NHS.
He also called on the government to ensure product manufacturers pay their “fair share” of the costs.
“So far, they have not been asked to pay anything towards rectifying the buildings, and as the Grenfell Inquiry showed, they are responsible for a lot of the problems,” Betts added.
Liberal Democrat housing and planning spokesperson Gideon Amos, an architect and former official at the Planning Inspectorate, pressed for reform of the product and building inspection systems.
“Both the Building Research Establishment and building inspectors should be brought back under public control.”
He added: “It is now time to put safety once again before profit.”
In the debate, housing minister Alex Norris also clarified the deadline for completing remediation work, which the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced yesterday (2 December).
He said: “2029 is not when it will start but when it will be resolved. Our commitment is that by the end of 2029, all residential buildings 18 metres and over with unsafe cladding in a government-funded scheme will have been remediated.”
Conservative backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin called for a building safety investigation branch to be set up in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This would be similar to the bodies for air, marine and rail accidents.
“It would be constantly looking for risks in the system, not just investigating accidents,” he said. “The advantage of a standing capability is that there are experts who are permanently employed and who really understand everything about building safety.”
He said this body should stand alone from the Building Safety Regulator.
“If you are a regulator, you are a participant,” Jenkin said. “You are capable of making mistakes, and you need to be independently investigated, or checked, to confirm that you are not breaching rules, or failing in some way – through no fault of your own, perhaps.”
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Chris Smith