The news came as UK Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner announced that the government all 58 recommendations of a public inquiry into the disaster.

The inquiry found that the deaths of all 72 people killed in Grenfell Tower were avoidable. It concluded that the fire resulted from a series of failures on the part of the government, “dishonest companies�, and lack of a strategy within the fire service on how to deal with high-rise cladding fires.

The seven companies under investigation are:

• Cladding manufacturer Arconic Architectural Products SAS
• Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK Limited, which owned insulation firm Celotex Limited at the time of the fire
• Exova (UK) Limited, which carried out fire risk safety assessments
• Cladding subcontractor Harley Facades Limited
• Insulation manufacturer Kingspan Insulation Limited
• Main contractor Rydon Maintenance Limited
• Architect Studio E Architects Limited

The government said it would investigate the companies using new powers under the Procurement Act and that if certain grounds are met, they could be debarred from working on public contracts.

Construction products green paper

The government also published a new , setting out a range of proposals for construction products reform and a new regulatory framework.

Grenfell Tower (Image: Loz Pycock/Wikimedia Commons)

It said that a series of reviews had “exposed significant failures in the construction products regulatory system, revealing institutional failures that allowed profit to come before safety�.

One review, the Morrell-Day Review, suggested that two-thirds of construction products are not covered by existing regulations. The government said it planned to implement a “proportionate, risk-based general safety requirement that applies to all currently unregulated construction products.�

The new requirement mandates that all manufacturers are “responsible for assessing the safety risks associated with their products before they are marketed�.

It also called for existing regulations for products that do fall under designated standards or subject to a technical assessment to be enforced with stronger sanctions for those who fail to adhere to the standards.

Rayner said, “We are acting on all of the Inquiry’s findings, and today set out our full response, detailing the tough action we are taking to drive change and reform the system to ensure no community will ever have to face a tragedy like Grenfell ever again. �

“That means greater accountability, stronger regulation, and putting residents at the heart of decision-making. We must deliver the fundamental change required. We owe that to the Grenfell community, to the country, and to the memory of those who lost their lives.�