星空传媒

A senior civil servant has told the Grenfell inquiry that he 鈥渟truggles to understand鈥� why he did not take action to prevent a major cladding fire.

Brian Martin, who was responsible for guidance on fire safety in buildings for nearly 17 years before the Grenfell fire, admitted that he missed opportunities to address the risks of using deadly ACM cladding in high-rise buildings.

He said it was 鈥渟omething I regret in a way I find difficult to describe鈥�.

The inquiry has heard that Martin was the person in the housing department 鈥渢o whom everybody turned鈥� for expertise on fire safety in buildings.

Over the past week, the hearing has been shown a series of emails from cladding experts sent to Martin in the years before the Grenfell fire warning him of the widespread use of ACM on tall buildings in the UK.

Martin was also repeatedly warned about confusion in the construction industry over an ambiguous passage in building regulations, authored by him and his colleagues, which some interpreted as permitting the use of combustible cladding materials above 18m.