The UK Government is seeking a contractor to carry out security and day-to-day maintenance works on the Grenfell Tower site in west London.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) needs to re-procure the contract as its existing arrangement with Deconstruct UK will expire in July 2024.
As principal contractor, responsibilities include:
- Monitoring the tower and site 24 hours a day
- Tower maintenance including annual rewrapping
- Checks: props, hoardings, gates, lights, alarms, security system
- Social value: community employment, training, practical support
The Grenfell Tower Fire
Seventy-two people died as a result of an inferno that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington on 14 June 2017, in what was one of the deadliest structural fires ever in the UK.
The Grenfell Tower inquiry held its final hearings in November 2022 after four-and-a-half years of gathering evidence of what caused the deadly blaze, including the role of the construction industry, government and regulators, and the installation of combustible cladding panels.
Official findings had been expected this autumn but have been delayed until the middle of next year.
In May 2021, engineering consultants Atkins told the then Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government: “There is unanimous agreement and unambiguous advice from all the technical experts and engineers involved in the Grenfell project that the tower should not be propped for the medium to long-term but should be deconstructed at the earliest possible opportunity, with deconstruction commencing no later than May 2022. This advice is based on protecting the safety of those working in and living around the tower.”
Today the tower still stands as a monument to the many lives lost in the disaster, and while the public inquiry continues, and government deliberates on an appropriate, respectful and safe solution for the structure and the surrounding community.
The new contract
The appointment of the contractor will take around five months, to ensure no previous relationship to the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.
Bidders will be expected to give a presentation to the community in late February, with the new contract likely awarded in April/May.
“We understand that this procurement is more than a technical process, and that site maintenance has considerable local impact, and we want to involve the community in the procurement process,” a government notice reads.
“The appointment of the contractor will follow the usual robust government processes and checks, including thorough due diligence, to ensure no previous relationship to the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.”
Adding: “We know how important and sensitive a decision on Grenfell Tower is, and a decision about the future of the tower has not yet been taken. We are continuing to talk to bereaved families, survivors and residents to understand their views.
“The health and safety of the community is our priority. Carrying out our planned programme of maintenance will continue to maintain the tower until a decision is made on its future.”
For full details, including about how to be part of the procurement process, click here.
Interested companies can bid for the Grenfell Tower contract via email: GrenfellTowerSite@levellingup.gov.uk, or by phone: 0303 444 0011.
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Image credit: Carcharoth, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
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