Bardage boss denies any contribution to Grenfell disaster

The boss of a cladding company heavily criticised by the Grenfell Tower inquiry has denied playing any role in the disaster.

Claude Wehrle, a former sales support team manager at manufacturer Arconic, told BBC News the deaths of 72 people were “a tragedy”.

He said he was “not the one making the decisions” about sales of Reynobond's flammable PE coatings.

The investigation's final report said Mr Wehrle used “deliberate dishonesty” in selling the product, including to companies in the UK.

Mr Wehrle has provoked outrage among Grenfell victims by refusing to give evidence in person at the inquiry, saying he was prevented from doing so by French law.

The investigation's final report criticized him and two other Arconic employees for placing “the questionable requirements of French law above the interests of survivors.”

The report found that following successive fire performance tests in the 2000s, Mr Wehrle realised the cladding was more likely to burn if folded into a box shape, a standard design in the building industry and the shape used on Grenfell Tower in west London.

In 2010, Mr. Wehrle sent an email to his colleagues pointing out that in this form the Reynobond PE product would not meet European fire resistance standards for high-rise buildings, adding, “We must continue to [this] as “VERY CONFIDENTIAL”.

The same year, he wrote to a customer that the box shape would be safer.

The Grenfell Tower inquiry said the comment demonstrated “his willingness to deliberately resort to dishonesty in order to support the sale of the product”.

Arconic also hid the test results from a British body that issued safety certificates for products used in the construction industry.

Asked by the BBC why he had made the decision, Mr Wehrle – who has since left Arconic and lives in eastern France where he volunteers as a firefighter – insisted it was not his decision.

He said: “There are people in this company who were better placed than me to make that kind of decision.”

In response to the fact that his name appears more than a hundred times in the investigation's final report, Wehrle said: “I can't say whether it's fair or unfair. It's a question of justice.”

He said the deaths in the tower were “a tragedy and beyond unfortunate”.

“I feel the same as any other human being, whether he has no responsibility or not,” he added.

Meanwhile, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said on Thursday it was “not acceptable” that more than 2,000 buildings in the UK still need cladding.

She pledged to pressure developers to carry out the work following the publication of the damning report into the fire.

Ms Rayner did not set a timetable for the completion of the work or announce any specific measures to speed up the process.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said earlier that “if building owners are not prepared to act… then we will change the law to force them to act.”

Downing Street also said central government had no contracts with companies involved in Grenfell.

No 10 said a review would be carried out to determine whether any of the companies still have a subcontracting role in government supply chains.

Guidance will be issued to public sector organisations to exclude them if necessary.

Grenfell Tower Report