Rydon’s accounts show fire remediation costs since Grenfell

Across the group, results for the year showed a pretax loss of £9.1m, compared with a pretax loss of £5.9m the previous year.

The accounts report said: “Industry-wide cost liabilities following the introduction of the Building Safety Act will continue to have an impact on our construction business with its focus on legacy works and remediation, albeit that we have been addressing fire-safety issues long before any requirements to do so under current legislation.”

Last year Rydon signed the government’s building safety remediation contract which commits companies to remediate unsafe buildings that they developed.

Under this legally-binding document, companies will collectively pay £2bn or more for repairs to buildings they developed or refurbished over the past 30 years.

In addition to the Building Safety Levy, this means they will pay an estimated £5bn to make their buildings safe.

Company accounts published last year showed that Rydon was making a £26.7m provision for Grenfell civil claims.

More than 900 survivors, emergency responders and bereaved from the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people in June 2017 filed civil claims against the organisations involved in the refurbishment of the tower.

Rydon’s latest accounts noted that “discussions” with those affected who were not included in the settlement, as well as emergency responders to the fire, “continue to be ongoing”.