Grenfell contractor Rydon ‘should not bid for public work’ says Jenrick

The Cabinet Office responded to the original story saying it could not block companies from entering frameworks, unless they have been convicted of an offence.

Yesterday it emerged that London mayor Sadiq Khan had signed an order last year preventing the contractor from bidding for work until the inquiry has concluded.

Rydon is a major contractor in the social housing sector, for construction, repairs and refurbishment projects.

It builds affordable housing across Greater London and the South East, with contracts with housing associations and councils for schemes ranging from 10 units to 800.

It also carries out property maintenance for 35,000 social homes for a range of registered providers, including a major private finance initiative scheme with Islington Council in north-east London, and has had recent refurbishment contracts with a range of housing associations and councils.

It also works across the education, health and care sectors.

The Crawley-based contractor doubled its profits in 2017/18 from £7.4m to £16.6m, according to its most recent accounts. Its accounts say it is targeting expansion into the South West.

The accounts said it had made “no provision” for the impact of Grenfell given what it said was “the limited nature of the work commissioned, the approvals received in relation to it and the interrelationship with the work undertaken by other parties”. It did not list the impact of the investigations into the fire as a principal risk.

Last week the chair of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, deemed the aluminium composite cladding installed on the outside of the tower as the “primary cause” of the vertical spread of the flames and said that it failed to comply with building regulations.

Rydon was tasked with the refurbishment of the tower which included new windows, a new communal heating system and the cladding.

It sub-contracted the installation of the cladding to Harley Facades and the panels were provided by the giant multinational materials company Arconic.

In his judgement, Sir Martin also criticised the new window in the kitchen where the fire started saying that the “configuration and materials of the windows and the exterior cladding” gave a “disproportionately high” chance of the fire spreading out of the kitchen and into the cladding system.

Rydon has been contacted for comment.