Ok, so here's the story of how this happened. In March 2014, Rydon was close to being appointed as the lead contractor for Grenfell Tower, following a procurement process https://twitter.com/PeteApps/status/1285222582518796288

In fact, according to emails seen today, the firm had been tipped off by KCTMO on 11 March that its bid (£9.2m) was in first place, and they were likely to win the job. In an open procurement process, this shouldn't really be happening.

Nonetheless, discussions now began between Rydon, KCTMO and consultants Artelia about further 'value engineering' (saving money by switching materials) which could take a further £800,000 out of Rydon's costs and get it within KCTMO's budget.

But Rydon had a problem. An email from Kate Bachellier (a cost estimator) said she had found "the Frank-ism" in Grenfell. He hadn't added provisional sums of £212,000 to its costs. Their bid was £212,000 too low

(This was a reference to Rydon's Frank Smith basically getting it wrong. Mr Lawrence said today: "I think the particular person probably had made a few errors in the past.")

Rydon now needed more than £1m in savings - £800k to keep the TMO happy, £200k for its own mistake

On March 14, it asked Harley (specialist cladding sub-contractor) to provide estimates of the cost of switching cladding materials. These were produced as follows. The £419,627 option is the one that was taken.

But then on March 18, Rydon presented these potential savings to the TMO. Spot the difference.

Asked to account for the changes, Mr Lawrence said: "I would suggest by that, although not my area of expertise, that Rydon took some of the savings for themselves."

He was asked by Richard Millett QC: “Was the plan at Rydon to keep the TMO in the dark about the real extent of savings which could be made by the ACM switch and then pocket the difference to make up the shortfall made by Frank Smith’s estimating error?”

He accepted that this "could" have been the reason, but said the more senior staff at Rydon and the finance team were better placed to explain. Story here: https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/rydon-planned-to-pocket-savings-from-grenfell-tower-cladding-switch-inquiry-hears-67231