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The Grenfell Tower refurbishment project would fail unless a fundamental review of its scope was carried out, a consultant working for the client warned at an early stage.

Cost consultant Artelia said re-procuring the main contractor in a bid to overcome a 拢2m budget shortfall was not the right solution because replacing Leadbitter would 鈥渋ncur additional time and expense鈥� and there was no guarantee another contractor would be better.

Instead Artelia argued that a far more fundamental reappraisal of what was achievable for the money the client was prepared to spend was necessary, the inquiry heard on Monday.

In a status report on 23 April 2013, Artelia told Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO): 鈥淯nless the project, in its current guise, is stopped and a review embarked upon to redefine the scope, programme and cost, it will fail.鈥�

But a month after that report Artelia wrote a new recommendation promoting the idea of re-procuring the work.

Paul Dunkerton, the first of the TMO witnesses to give evidence to the inquiry into the events leading up to the deaths of 72 people in June 2017, agreed with inquiry barrister Andrew Kinnier QC on Monday that this was a 鈥渧olte-face鈥�.

It happened after a meeting where the TMO explained to Artelia that its priorities had changed, with 鈥渧alue for money [not programme] now the primary driver for the project鈥�.

The inquiry was shown an internal Artelia email describing the TMO鈥檚 project lead, Peter Maddison, being overruled by Laura Johnson, the council鈥檚 director of housing and therefore the project鈥檚 funder.

She was already engaged in a confrontation with Leadbitter over cost issues on the Kensington Academy and Leisure Centre (KALC), a related project next to Grenfell Tower, the inquiry has heard.

Leadbitter was originally to be the contractor on both projects but had priced the Grenfell Tower work at more than 拢10m which was well above Artelia鈥檚 estimate 鈥� which itself was higher than the TMO鈥檚 budget of 拢8m 鈥� triggering a value engineering process.

The inquiry was shown an email from Alun Dawson of Artelia 鈥� previously known as Appleyards 鈥� in which he asked architect Bruce Sounes of Studio E to help address this deficit urgently.

鈥淐an you come back to us with a radical re-think of the scope/spec (whilst still meeting the original brief) by early part of next week to deliver it within budget,鈥� he wrote on 26 February 2013.

Sounes replied the same morning: 鈥淚t is not really possible to undertake a radical re-think without sight of the figures, a discussion with the client, and the involvement with the services engineer who is not copied into your email. Is the M&E not under review as well?鈥�

The exchange came a month after Sounes had written to the TMO鈥檚 Dunkerton, a project manager who said he had a mainly administrative role, pointing out that because of delays in novating Studio E to the contractor 鈥� which would have released its outstanding fee 鈥� the practice had continued working on it, staffing it with two people full-time.

The inquiry continues.