The government may have understood as long ago as 2002 that Grenfell-style aluminium composite material (ACM) should not be used on high-rise buildings, a director from the Building Research Establishment has said.

Debbie Smith, a former director at BRE, was quizzed by the Grenfell Inquiry yesterday about the government’s understanding of a failed safety test of polyethylene-cored ACM cladding carried out in 2001.