Contract awarded for Grenfell Tower demolition

Grenfell Tower in London, UK, after a fire on 14 June 2017 that killed 72 people (Image: Jay via AdobeStock - stock.adobe.com)

According to the government’s contract notice, “MHCLG is publishing this voluntary transparency notice to alert economic operators of its intention to vary a maintenance and safety contract with Deconstruct (UK) Limited.”

The modification expands the existing agreement—which already covered repair, maintenance, security, and emergency deconstruction services—to include planned deconstruction works.

The notice stated that this change is justified under Regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 “on the basis of there being technical reasons why a change of contractor cannot be made and due to the fact that any change in contractor would cause significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs.”

The published value of the modification is “less than 50% of the value of the original contract.”

The notice added: “The published engineering advice is that the building should be deconstructed at the earliest opportunity as the best means to mitigate risks related to its condition. The building can currently be safely deconstructed.”

It also stated: “Planned deconstruction will minimise disruption to the community as it will minimise the use of noisy and percussive approaches and ensure dust control is in place from the outset.”

MHCLG said that Deconstruct (UK) Limited has “unique site knowledge” because it has been working on the Grenfell site since 2017 and has “undertaken all three stages of propping,” “site clearance,” and “led on the weekly monitoring of the props in the building since installation and undertaken any necessary remedial works.”