AC-2024-LON-0001595 - [2025] EWHC 2182 (Admin)

On 14 June 2017, a fire destroyed Grenfell Tower. Seventy-Two people lost their lives in the fire. The first report of the Inquiry, published on 30 October 2019 (“Phase 1 report”), concluded that the defining factor in the rapid and all-consuming spread of the fire was the presence of combustible materials in the cladding installed during the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower in 2014 to 2016. The Phase 1 report also considered a host of other defects which accelerated the rate of spread.

Several current and former employees of Rydon Maintenance gave oral evidence during Modules 1 and 2 of Phase 2 of the Inquiry. That evidence raised concerns as to, amongst other things, Rydon Maintenance’s approach to building safety. The eventual findings in the second report of the Inquiry, published on 4 September 2024 (“Phase 2 report”), included the following:

“We consider that the principal contractor, Rydon, also bears considerable responsibility for the fire. It gave inadequate thought to fire safety, to which it displayed a casual attitude throughout the project and its systems for managing the design work did not ensure that its sub-contractors and consultants properly understood their different responsibilities. Rydon itself did not understand where responsibility for individual decisions lay and as a result it failed to co-ordinate the design work properly.”