A new contractor been appointed to take over from Wates to continue essential safety and maintenance work at Grenfell Tower.
Wates’ contract for the site expires in July, and Deconstruct UK, part of a wider group of companies called De-Group, has been appointed to continue work on the site.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said that the appointment was a standard process and came after a procurement process that began in December las year.
Deconstruct UK has worked at the Grenfell Tower site since 2017 as a specialist subcontractor to Wates Property Services. MHCLG stressed that the firm had not been appointed to demolish the tower.
Its duties will involve: monitoring the Tower and the site 24 hours a day; carrying out planned safety works, including the removal of heavy and damaged items and asbestos from the Tower; installing new props to supplement those that have been installed since the fire; and ongoing maintenance work.
Earlier this month, MHCLG confirmed that it is consulting with residents, survivor families and the bereaved about “carefully taking down” the tower, following safety advice from structural engineering firms, Atkins, and Jacobs. MHCLG said there would be no change to the tower before the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell disaster, which killed 72 people, which falls in June 2022.
