Technical services company Equans has raised a case for £2.73m under section 149 of the Building Safety Act against Arconic Architectural Products relating to the use of dangerous cladding on three London tower blocks
Bringing the case, Equans has claimed that Arconic “deliberately and dishonestly” concealed concerns over the fire safety of their Reynobond 55 polyethylene (PE) cladding product that had been used for the renovation of the blocks owned by Barnet Council. The same product had been used in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower and was pinpointed as the primary cause of the fatal blaze by the Sir Martin Moore-Bick-led public inquiry.
As reported by Construction News, Apollo Property Services (now part of Equans) were given the role of main contractor for the 2011 refurbishment of three 15-storey residential tower blocks in Childs Hill – Granville Point, Harpenmead Point, and Templewood Point.
Following the Grenfell fire, Barnet Council were required to spend £8.3m on remediation work to remove the dangerous cladding from the three blocks. In May 2025, Equans reimbursed the council to the sum of £5.49m and had received payments themselves totalling £2.76m from two subcontractors on the project – the principal design consultant, Hadley Design Associates, and the rainscreen cladding system designers, Mark Heywood Associates.
This latest case lodged in the High Court now sees Equans looking to recover the remaining money paid to the council from Arconic and three of its affiliate companies under a building liability order (BLO).
The papers submitted by Equans allege that “Arconic knew and understood that Reynobond Panels were dangerous when used as architectural cladding panels well before the Grenfell Tower fire”. They point to evidence gathered for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that the manufacturer knew of the “extreme danger” posed by the use of ACM PE cladding panels on residential buildings as early as 2007.
Equans also claim that test data known about by Arconic’s technical team showed it was “impossible” for Reynobond PE to pass a large-scale fire safety test and this information was withheld from certification bodies and the market at large.
“In obtaining the Reynobond BBA Certificate, Arconic deliberately and dishonestly concealed those matters from the BBA [British Board of Agrément] and did not provide it with the results of Test 5B from December 2004,” the court papers say.
In response to the filing of the case, a spokesperson for Arconic said: “We have acknowledged the claim from Equans and we will be filing our defence at the end of the year.”