Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation went against its own lawyers’ advice with a secret pre-appointment meeting at which value engineering options were discussed with future Grenfell Tower refurbishment main contractor Rydon, it has emerged.

David Gibson, KCTMO’s then head of capital investment and a senior client-side figure in the refurbishment – which led to 2017’s fire and the loss of 72 lives – admitted that an “offline” March 2014 meeting with Rydon had covered topics that broke EU rules, according to the advice.