This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

The designers of the disastrous Grenfell Tower refurbishment were selected despite never having carried out similar work and admitted they were so “green on process and technicality” they would have to undergo rapid training.

The public inquiry heard that Studio E Architects was chosen without any competitive procurement process, interview or design competition and its founder, Andrzej Kuszell, could not recall any competence check being carried out. He admitted his firm would not have been selected if there had been a contest.

He said: “I am really, really sorry for all of you. I can only say to you from my heart we really wanted to do the best project we could.”

Timeline Key events since the Grenfell Tower fire Show Hide

The fire breaks out in the early hours of the morning, prompting a huge response from emergency services, who are unable to bring the fire under control or prevent a severe loss of life. The then Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, visits the scene and orders a full inquiry into the disaster, and the government promises that every family will be rehoused locally. The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, orders an emergency fire safety review of 4,000 tower blocks across Britain, and it will emerge that 120 tower blocks have combustible cladding. Scotland Yard launches a criminal investigation into the Grenfell fire. The chancellor, Philip Hammond, says the cladding used on Grenfell Tower was banned in the UK. The retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick is appointed to lead the public inquiry. Kensington and Chelsea council’s first meeting since the disaster is abandoned after the council fails in a bid to ban the media from attending. Survivors have their first official meeting with the police and coroner. The inquiry formally opens. As the final death toll is confirmed to be 71 people, it is revealed that hundreds of households are still living in hotels. In defensive testimony at the inquiry, London fire brigade commissioner Dany Cotton said she would not change anything about the way the brigade responded to the Grenfell disaster, provoking anger from both survivors and the bereaved. Grenfell survivors and the bereaved expressed frustration at Scotland Yard after they admitted no charges were likely until 2021. The public inquiry report concludes that fewer people would have died had the fire brigade been better prepared. Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg is forced to apologise after stating that victims of Grenfell did not use "common sense" and leave the burning building. Grenfell cladding firm Arconic reveals it has spent £30 million on lawyers and advisors defending their role in the disaster. The second phase of the Grenfell Tower inquiry begins. Stacee Smith and Grace Mainwaring

The 120-home tower block, which was owned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, caught fire on 14 June 2017, killing 72 people. Its plastic-filled aluminium cladding, which the inquiry heard would prevent it from seeming like a “poor cousin” to a new school constructed next door, has already been identified as the main cause of fire spread.

Richard Millett QC, counsel to the inquiry, told the hearing in Paddington that Studio E’s selection after designing the neighbouring Kensington Aldridge academy was “cheap, convenient, quick, even though Grenfell Tower was a completely different kind of project with different challenges”.

Under cross-examination, Kuszell confirmed his team “was not experienced in overcladding a residential tower block” and that the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation (TMO), the building’s landlord and project client, “knew exactly what our skill set was”.

The inquiry also heard that Neil Crawford, who had day-to-day management of the Grenfell project for the practice, was not fully qualified as an architect because he had not completed his professional qualification. Bruce Sounes, another senior architect on the job, said he had not worked on a high-rise building and had no experience with polyethylene composite materials as a working architect.

He said he did not think Studio E would have qualified for the job in a bid process, because of a lack of relevant experience.

The counsel to the inquiry put it to him that Studio E might have been in financial difficulties when it took the job, and asked: “Was it the case that Studio E was eager to retain lucrative projects despite not having the expertise?”

Sounes replied: “That’s an unfair question… if a project comes along and there is no reason for you not to do it, you will do it.”

Internal project emails released for the first time also revealed that early budgets were considered too low by the architects and that the fee they were being offered of no more than £99,000 – kept low to avoid putting the contract out to tender under public procurement rules – would not cover all the work they needed to do.

Sounes, Studio E’s project architect on the works, was also worried about the approach being taken by the TMO, describing its ideas for early design changes as like “headless chickens, a chaotic mess” in one email and warning Kuszell in another that the project was was being treated like a “poor relative”.

Jane Trethewey, the housing strategy and regeneration manager at RBKC, said in another email that Grenfell Tower was “one of its worst property assets” and recladding would “prevent it looking like a poor cousin to the brand new facility being developed next door”.

Kuszell told the inquiry: “I believe that we had the processes and experience of complex buildings to be able to undertake this commission. But it was clear that there would be a need for CPD [continuing professional development] and research around the project.”

Earlier, the inquiry was halted within minutes of its restart when community activists stood up when the architect started to give evidence and angrily shouted that it was “a cover-up”.

Jonty Leff, 42, and Scott Dore, 40, shouted at the chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, that the inquiry was a “disgrace” because witnesses who worked for some of the companies involved in the works had been assured by the attorney general that their evidence would not be used in criminal prosecutions against them.

The hearing descended into confusion when the two men complained that this assurance had not been given to firefighters who gave evidence at an earlier stage of the inquiry in 2018.

“You are giving them different treatment,” shouted Leff, who later described himself as a political activist. “You should shut them down.” Dore said he lived in west London near the tower.

Moore-Bick halted proceedings and ordered Leff and Dore to be removed. They refused, and the bereaved and survivors remonstrated with them in the room for several minutes.

Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle, Hesham Rahman, died in the fire, said: “There are bereaved and survivors who want to listen.”

Willie Thompson, another survivor, shouted at the pair to get out. They were approached by Stuart Cundy, the lead officer in the Metropolitan police investigation into the disaster, and after a few minutes they agreed to leave.

Moore-Bick had just explained that the undertaking by the attorney general meant that “no one will be able to justify refusing to answer questions on the grounds that to do so would or might expose him or herself personally to a risk of prosecution”.

Speaking outside the hearing, Leff said his protest was triggered by the attorney general’s decision the previous week.

The Metropolitan police are investigating possible crimes including gross negligence manslaughter, which can attract lengthy prison terms. The force has said it is gathering its own evidence and is not relying on the inquiry.

“It’s one rule for them and one rule for the firefighters,” said Leff. “It means the firefighters were hung out to dry. It’s a whitewash. It means the inquiry is a whitewash.”

Dore added: “I am here to speak up for the families who lost their loved ones.”