138 Kingspan: Week 2

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast

BBC

News

4.8 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The inquiry heard more evidence from insulation manufacturers Kingspan. Three of the company’s managers were questioned about their involvement in the testing and marketing of the company’s combustible insulation.

The company’s Technical Manager said a contractor who had concerns about the use of Kingspan’s insulation had confused him “with someone who gives a damn”.

The inquiry also revealed that an official in the Department for Communities and Local Government knew about the risks of using combustible insulation on high rises as early as 2014 – three years before the fire at Grenfell Tower.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble Producer: Sharon Hemans Researcher: May Cameron

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.3	Hello and welcome to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast with me, Kate Lamble.
0:10.1	Last week, the inquiry heard from employees of Kingspan,
0:13.2	the company which made some of the insulation placed on Grenfell Tower.
0:16.9	And in their evidence, they said they told their managers
0:19.6	about their concerns that the company
0:21.4	was stretching the truth when they sold Kingspan's product for use on high-rise buildings.
0:27.1	And this week, it was the turn of Kingspan's managers to give evidence.
0:31.4	The big question was, would they accept they knew about the behaviour of the staff they managed?
0:38.8	We'll find out about that in a moment. But one bit of evidence really struck me this week because it revealed something
0:44.0	about the approach some Kingspan management took to fire safety. When contractors raised questions
0:50.1	about how suitable the company's insulation was for high-rise buildings,
0:57.5	Kingspan's technical manager, Philip Heath, wrote in an email,
1:01.1	they'd confused him, quote, for someone who gives a dam.
1:04.0	Let's get started with the evidence then.
1:08.5	It's worth reminding ourselves that Kingspan made a range of plastic foam insulation,
1:10.1	which was combustible.
1:13.2	Kingspan's technical director, Malcolm Rochfort.
1:18.8	They're organic materials, so they have carbon, hydrogen, and if it's hot enough, they will burn.
1:24.4	This meant Kingspan's products could not achieve the classification of limited combustibility, the standard recommended for high-rise blocks by building regulation guidance in England and Wales.
1:30.2	But despite this, Kingspan made a plan to market its materials for use on high-rise buildings.
1:35.8	At a strategic level, we had identified expansion of the phenolic market as an important opportunity in 2004.
	...

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