Wikipedia says all three.. It seems their priorities list were:

1/2/3. Insulation, Energy, Aesthetics

4. Cost

5. Material that doesn't burn up and torch people when it catches fire...

Since you're just guessing ("I think"), my guess is if the tower wasn't in the richest neighborhood of London, the council wouldn't give a shit about its insulation and energy savings. And my guess is they added these reasons to make themselves look benevolent instead of saying "We're adding cladding because the tower looks shit otherwise."

> Since you're just guessing ("I think"), my guess is if the tower wasn't in the richest neighborhood of London, the council wouldn't give a shit about its insulation and energy savings. And my guess is they added these reasons to make themselves look benevolent instead of saying "We're adding cladding because the tower looks shit otherwise."

Actually, one of the reasons for the beautification is that it was quite close to some expensive real estate.

Oh, actually we're agreeing. I read your comment wrong.

Building regulations in the Uk mandate a minimum standard of fabric energy efficiency regardless of location, both for renovations and for new builds. The Greater London Authority is quite strict on this for new build developments and I suspect that carries through to renovations. It’s more the other way round in that developers are required by local authorities to meet efficiency targets, but ending up cutting corners to achieve it on the cheap

> my guess is if the tower wasn't in the richest neighborhood of London, the council wouldn't give a shit about its insulation and energy savings

This seems backward to me - why do you think a council with more financial pressure care less about their bottom line, and a council with less financial pressure care more?

Maybe pressure from constituents to stop wasting money on projects for undesirable folk.

At least, that's what I would expect here in the USA.

As a resident of RBKC, I can tell you that this was literally never an issue in local elections before Grenfell. Issues people really cared about were things like people driving Ferraris/Lambourghinis with the silencers/mufflers removed down residential streets late at night.