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Hello and welcome to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast with me, Kate Lamble.

This week, the inquiry continued to hear from staff at the Testing House BRE or Building Research Establishment.

Once again, they gave us an insight into what the government knew about the dangers of combustible cladding.

And we learnt that 16 years before the Grenfell Tower fire,

a government-sponsored fire test, showed the type of cladding panels which would later be installed on the block,

were a catastrophic failure.

Can we agree that in very simple terms, this was an inferno, wasn't it?

It was a very rapid, very large fire growth, yes.

Yeah.

And the building research establishment's response to queries about the building regulations

was described as a buck passing load of incompetence.

Let's get started with the evidence then.

The BRE was set up as a government-funded research laboratory,

designed to help understand and advise on the safety of building materials and methods of construction.

It was privatised in 1997, but continued close links with the government,

often asked to investigate fires or other safety concerns.

And this week, the inquiry examined

a number of fires which could have given the BRE and the government an indication of the dangers

of combustible cladding materials. Starting in the 1980s, the government funded a scheme called

the Estate Action Program. Local authorities were given funding to refurbish 1960s tower blocks. In 1991, there was a fire

at one of the refurbished blocks. Flames spread vertically up the outside of Noseley Heights,

...