34 COUNCIL HIGH-RISES IN 17 AREAS FITTED National PM urged to Evacuations convene Cobra from city blocks
In some areas fire services have issued warnings to health chiefs to carry out fireproofing work.
Our revelations come as Downing Street ordered urgent safety checks at hospital buildings amid fears some may be covered in flammable cladding. Similar tests will be carried out at schools, colleges and other public buildings.
Last night our whistleblower, a senior employee in the NHS with decades of experience, said: “These building companies are playing pirate with the public purse.
“UK hospitals have spent £60billion on PFI deals to build hospitals across the country but these big conglomerates are making five, six, seven times that amount.
“They know the hospitals are cash-strapped so they are cutting corners on safety and it is putting the lives of patients at risk.
“The hospitals do not have the budgets to fight legal cases so inevitably end up giving in and accepting what they are left with.
“But it is only a matter of time Hospital fought to keep details of fire safety flaws secret after officers served an enforcement notice on their PFI partner Mercia Healthcare.
Separate research by Tussell, a database of Government tenders and contracts, discovered £56million of public money had been spent on public sector buildings that contain references to cladding since 2014.
Peterborough’s hospital was slapped with an enforcement notice by fire chiefs but the best estimate is that it will take until 2019 to fix all the problems.
Sarah Westwood of Peterborough (Progress Health), the PFI partner on the Peterborough Hospital, said: “The costs of the works are being met by the private sector.” THOUSANDS more families are facing evacuation in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster after their flats failed emergency safety tests.
At least 34 council-owned high rise blocks in 17 local authorities have been found to have combustible cladding similar to that used in the Grenfell, the Government has revealed.
Blocks in Portsmouth, Manchester and Plymouth as well as Camden, Brent and Hounslow in London have buildings that failed tests.
Labour l eader Jeremy Corbyn has urged Theresa May to convene the Government’s emergency Cobra committee. He said: “This is now a nationwide threat. The Prime Minister needs to get a grip and lead a national response.”
Trauma
night at a nearby leisure centre, others moved into hotels but more than 80 others refused to leave.
A woman, aged 57, who has a severe lung condition, said: “Some days I cannot walk to the door, never mind the local sports centre.
“We’re not refusing to leave, it’s not viable unless the council finds a feasible solution.”
She and her daughters, aged 26 and 30, had been offered a room at a Premier Inn elsewhere in the capital.
She said: “That’s one room for three adults, two cats and three hamsters. I Swiss Cottage leisure centre where some evacuated residents spent the night. The woman was told she could not go to temporary accommodation because she owned a dog.
She said: “I suffer from emphysema and now they are telling they can’t rehouse me because I have a dog. What I am supposed to be do with my dog, put it down?”
Another resident, Roger Evans, 51, said: “As far as I am concerned, nothing in that building has changed in the last few days, weeks, months or years. “It was perfectly safe before, despite what they are saying now – I believe I am safe in there.”
HGV driver Steve Perolli, 49, who stayed in his fourth-floor flat with his partner Kerry and his two grown-up stepdaughters, said he was asked to leave again at 3am.
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