Right so, today at the inquiry we filled in a new piece of the puzzle surrounding the government's failure to change regulations in time to stop Grenfell https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/key-government-official-warned-over-use-of-kingspan-insulation-on-high-rises-in-2014-68910

We have known since 2018 that the key official responsible for Approved Document B (the guidance which covers fire safety) had attended an industry briefing on 2 July 2014, where very specific warnings were given about combustible insulation and cladding https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/government-did-not-act-after-warning-about-grenfell-style-cladding-in-2014-minutes-reveal-57433

(I know it's probably poor form to do the whole 'this was my scoop' thing, but this was my scoop)

Anyway, that meeting contained very clearly delivered warnings about the use of combustible ACM cladding and insulation on high rises. Here's what was said about insulation:

Brian Martin (the official) had promised to publish an 'FAQ' making it clear that the use of combustible cladding was not in line with regs. But nothing was ever delivered. Today we got to go one step further into that story.

On 11 July 2014 (nine days after that meeting) we now know that Mr Martin emailed the NHBC (country's biggest private building inspector) to follow up on these concerns. Described it as a "friendly warning".

NHBC were actually at this stage in quite a protracted dispute with Kingspan at this point about the use of its K15 insulation on high rises. NHBC's Steve Evans responded to Mr Martin with a very detailed email explaining how and why Kingspan was so widely used.

But then this chain gets forwarded to Kingspan, and they respond very aggressively, saying the claims Mr Evans has made about their product are false and referring to two recent successful test passes

But there was a problem. Both of these tests were not done on the K15 that was on the market but a new 'research and development' product which was never sold. And one of the two tests was actually a failure (although Kingspan was contesting this)

"What I'm going to suggest to you is it was a deliberate lie, all of this, it wasn't just inadvertent, it was a deliberate strategy to deceive not just NHBC and the various professionals but also DCLG potentially," inquiry counsel Kate Grange said today.

Tony Millichap, former head of technical at Kingspan who helped draft the letter, said: "That was never my intention."

So now we have a question. Was this communicated back to DCLG and did it allay Mr Martin's concerns?

All of this is very significant because at this exact point in west London, the refurbishment team were finalising the decisions about what insulation and cladding to use on Grenfell Tower.

A prompt and public warning from government officials not to use combustibles on tall buildings and who knows...

Doubtless we will hear more from Mr Martin when the inquiry finally gets round to government this time next year (ends)